Behind Enemy Lines
by Kirsten1726
Summary: Its the overused plot of Sakura being kidnapped by the Akatsuki with a twist. Yay me for being original! Rated M for language, violence and later chapters. *Wink wink* Pairing: Deidara x Sakura - REWRITING IN PROGRESS!
1. Prologue (R)

**Behind Enemy Lines**

**Disclaimer: **I do not own Naruto. **  
**

**Summary:** Its the overused plot of Sakura being kidnapped by the Akatsuki with a twist. Yay me for being original! Rated M for language, violence and later chapters. *Wink wink* Pairing: Deidara x Sakura - REWRITING IN PROGRESS!

**A/N: **Nothing much changed here, just a few, spelling errors and rewritten sentences.

O O O

_Prologue_

A storm was brewing. You could tell just by looking at the sky, it was dark gray and in the horizon, you could see lightning and barely hear the thunder. The wind grabbed a small stone and blew it a few meters away, but a pair of ninja sandals stopped it. If you looked closer, it almost looked like the stone was trying to seek shelter behind the kunoichi, who was standing there. However, the kunoichi did not notice the stone at all. She was just standing there, on the edge of the world watching, as the ocean water would get closer to the boulder she used as refuge.

"How did I end up in all this?" she whispered quietly, a tear came rushing down her cheek. Her voice drowned in the rising storm. No one was around to hear it, no one would ever know that she had said it and why, but it did not matter. The words now blown away by the wind would be lost forever.

A gust of wind picked up a few strands of pink and waved it playfully. The pink haired kunoichi looked up and just then, a couple drops of water landed on her face. She sight morosely and decided that it was about time to get back to the others. '_They must be back by now_.' She thought. Her eyes met the horizon once more before she turned around, jumped to the nearest tree, and ran back to their camp.

Meanwhile the little rock desperately tried to resist the now raging wind, but was pushed in to the dark water.


	2. Missions (R)

**Behind Enemy Lines**

**Disclaimer: **I do not own Naruto. **  
**

**Summary: **Its the overused plot of Sakura being kidnapped by the Akatsuki with a twist. Yay me for being original! Rated M for language, violence and later chapters. *Wink wink* Pairing: Deidara x Sakura - REWRITING IN PROGRESS!

**A/N: **Quite big changes were made in this chapter I'd suggest rereading, also added a bit extra :)

O O O

_Missions_

A young Akatsuki member was marching furiously down the hallway, slamming every open door he could find on the way. His face distorted in anger. A pair of grey eyes watched quietly from a distance, he knew better than to approach someone this pissed off, though it was tempting to go and push the blonde just that little bit further, it never failed to amuse him to see how easily the blonde was pushed over the edge. Besides he could use a bit of training, him an Itachi had not been on a mission for a while now. He just could not help himself. You only had the fun you made yourself in this hellhole. So he, against his better judgment, slowly approached the angry figure in front of him.

"Well, looks like someone is having a problem controlling their temper today." A voice chuckled from behind. Deidara turned around and was about to smack that annoying voice in the face, but he controlled himself.

"Yeah, and what the fuck do you want fish-breath, yeah?" Deidara growled, starring angrily in to two small grey eyes.

"Just a little fun. Fuck knows there's nothing else to do around here." The shark-like man answered, a smirk slowly spreading across his face. "Nothing beats boredom quite like a good old hand to hand spar, and of course it would be an easy win against your sorry ass." This earned him a seething death glare. It amused Kisame to see this man losing his temper so easily. That could very well cost him his life in a battle to the death. How he had ever been accepted into the Akatsuki was beyond Kisame's understanding. True shinobi would never let their temper get the best of them, and they would definitely never let themselves be baited in to unnecessary fights. However, apparently Pain did not share the same thoughts, since the Akatsuki was full of hotheaded idiots.

"What, you're not going to chicken out on me are you?" This time Deidara could not hold himself back, and launched himself at the blue shinobi. Kisame easily evaded Deidara's punch, and sent the blond flying back against the hallway wall.

"I'll take that as a 'no' then." Kisame smirked.

Deidara pushed himself off the wall and gave Kisame yet another death glare and a quick nod. He turned around and headed for the training grounds. Kisame followed the blonde shinobi and gave him an amused look that went entirely unnoticed. Deidara seemed deep in thought. It was unusual for him to be this quiet, Kisame wondered if he should poke whatever subject was on the others mind. He decided not to, as if he cared anyways. It would be good to come out stretch his legs. He had been sitting around waiting for missions far too long for his liking. Some sparing would do him good and lift his mood a bit.

When they reached the outside training grounds, the sky had turned a darker shade of grey and was now threatening to rain. Kisame grinned. Perfect weather for a spar. He looked at the blonde, who on the other hand was frowning. Deidara did not like the rain that was partly because his clay figures never held together for long in the when it was wet, and partly because it meant he would have to wash his hair properly again.

"No ninjutsu or genjutsu, only taijutsu." Deidara nodded and moved in to a fighting stance.

Kisame cracked his neck and waited for Deidara to make the first move. It was a simple shinobi tactic. The first one to attack was also the first to leave himself open for a counterattack. Deidara knew this well, but even so he would always strike out first. He had no patience to wait for the opponent to get his ass out of gear. For the second time this day, Deidara launched himself head-on at Kisame, who had been expecting this and was well prepared. He dodged the kick and turned to place a kick in the back, but was surprised to find Deidara behind him. He only barely managed to avoid the punch aimed at his head. He grabbed the arm and flung Deidara over his head. He landed on his feet, distanced himself and readied another attack.

"Not bad for a ranged fighter." Kisame chuckled thoroughly enjoying himself. He caught Deidara's next punch and moved to throw in a punch himself. Deidara crouched down and kicked the legs from underneath the big blue man. Kisame jumped but was unprepared for the punch that hit perfectly in his solar plexus and knocked the air out of his lungs.

This time it was Deidara's turn to grin at the big man. "That's for throwing me against the wall earlier, yeah." Kisame looked up, an almost predatory expression on his face. This was promising. He had not expected Deidara to do well with taijutsu. Last time he had spared with him, he had easily overpowered the younger male, this before Sasori was killed though, and that was well over 5 years now. Everyone had been so busy catching the jinchuuriki. It was rare that all the Akatsuki members were gathered at the base at the same time. Pain must be up to something.

His focus returned to Deidara who was now circling Kisame looking for an opening. Kisame sneered was not going to let him have one, he was well excited over Deidara's improvement and wanted to test him further. Though he knew Deidara could not defeat him in a fight, Kisame's endurance was far better than Deidara's or anyone in general. When it came to a test of endurance, no one could beat him.

Their sparing session continued for another hour, and by then Kisame had the upper hand and was raining down punch after punch on Deidara. He managed to block or dodge them all, but only just. He was at his limit and he was panting heavily.

A shout from the other end of the training grounds saved Deidara from kick to the ribs. They both looked up to see who had interrupted them. They saw Tobi running over to them.

"Deidara-senpai!" Tobi yelled.

Deidara frowned. He had no patience with Tobi, every little thing he did pissed him off to no end. Even the way he spoke his name. He was his partner though, and he admitted that Tobi had gained a considerable amount of power over the years. However, to him he would always be the noisy brat who replaced Sasori-danna.

"What?" Was the slightly annoyed response.

Tobi slowed down and walked the last few steps towards the two. "We got a mission, Tobi was told to go get you. Hurry up!" Deidara's frown deepened, how dared he give him orders. "You should go back too Kisame-san. Leader-sama is giving everyone missions."

At that, Kisame lightened up. "About goddamned time!" He roared.

O O O

Sakura was running. She was late. She ran through small streets, and took all the short cuts she knew. Sakura cursed herself for thinking she had had time to take a nap. She had taken a double shift last night at the hospital. She barely had any sleep that night, so when a messenger earlier that morning knocked on her door saying Tsunade had requested her for a meeting concerning a new mission at 12 o'clock. She had stupidly thought that 3 hours would have been enough to get a nap, a shower and food. Only her alarm never went off and when she woke up it was 12.37, and panic had overtaken her system. She had not had time for a shower and only managed to grab a piece of bread on the way out of the door.

She just could not be late. When she finally she arrived at the hokage tower. She threw open the door, and did not even think of closing it again. She flew up the stairs and ran to the door that would give entrance to the hokage's office. Sakura knocked nervously.

"Come in." Even from out in the hall she could hear the annoyance in the hokage's voice. Sakura swallowed and let herself in to the familiar office and took in the sight. The hokage, her shishou, sat at her usual place behind the desk. Sakura only all too well knew what that glare that met her meant. Tsunade was not happy, and that reason behind that was herself. Looking further around the room, she saw her team gathered. Naruto was there with his arms crossed in front of him and glaring at her. Sai stood a few feet behind Naruto and looked as expressionless as always. On the other side, she met the eye of her former teacher Kakashi-sensei. When their eyes met, he raised his hand and voiced a familiar 'Yo.'

_'Oh man, even Kakashi-sensei made it here before me_' Sakura thought.

"You are late!" stated the annoyed voice. "You have obviously been influenced far too much by your former teacher here." Tsunade glared at Kakashi who raised his hands in front of him as if to dismiss any fault he had in that matter.

"I'm so sorry, I was just-" Sakura said trying to apologies.

"We need to work more on your punctuality, when you get back." Tsunade said.

Sakura bowed her head in shame. She was always on time, she even prided with always being at least ten minutes early. She inwardly scolded herself for not double-checking her alarm. She had just been so exhausted, and had crashed on the couch after having sent the messenger off with her reply.

"Sakura-chaaan, why are you so late? Even Kakashi-sensei was here before you" Naruto pointed at Kakashi, who was getting a little less than happy by being blamed and looked down on, _he _had only been 15 minutes late. "We're_ finally_ going on a _real_ mission, and then you're late!"

"I'm sorry Naruto. I just forgot the time, and-" Sakura started but Naruto cut her off.

"Well, you're here now." Naruto reassured "Tsunade-baachan you can tell us our mission now."

Tsunade, whose mood had not gotten any better, frowned at Naruto, now he was giving her orders too. Everyone just seemed to be so quick to order around the hokage herself. First Shizune, then the elders interfering in everything and Sakura always telling her of for drinking too much and now Naruto too. She was going to have to beat some sense in to him one of these days. Not today though, her headache had only gotten worse after her favorite student had turned out to take after Kakashi, of course it did not help that she had drunk way too much last night either.

"Now, what I was saying," Tsunade began, raising her voice. She got the teams attention. "You are going on an A-ranked mission. This is an escort mission. You will be guarding Makoto to his village on the other side of the border to the Land of Rivers." Tsunade motioned to a man standing in the corner behind Tsunade.

Sakura looked surprised at the man. She had not noticed him standing there. The man lifted a bit on his hat in greetings. The hat covered half the man's face in shadows. Naruto obviously had not seen him either. Naruto jumped in surprise and demanding the man answer his pointless questions. '_Typical__Naruto_' Sakura thought. Her attention refocused on the mysterious man behind Tsunade. Why had she not noticed him the moment she came in? Had she just stressed too much about being late, that she had blocked it out? Had she been too embarrassed and afraid of being scolded by her shishou? She could understand that Naruto had not noticed the man. Naruto was always so oblivious to everything around him that it did not surprise her. However, it irked her that she had completely overseen the man herself. She blamed it on her lack of sleep and returned her attention to Tsunade.

"We have reason to believe that Orochimaru will have a certain interest in this man and you should therefore be extra careful carrying out this mission. Be on guard, Orochimaru may send some of his subordinates to get this man." Tsunade looked pointedly at Naruto. "Don't go rushing of somewhere, if any subordinates where to interfere. Remember your mission comes first. Then, when that is completed, you can chase after any subordinates that may be lurking around the area."

"Why would we…" Naruto started, but stopped seemingly realizing something. Sakura wondered what he was thinking. He opened his mouth about to say something, but no words came out. Tsunade just smiled knowingly. She then answered the question, which Naruto was about to ask, "Yes, Naruto there might be a slight chance that Orochimaru will send Sasuke out to do the job." She smiled again looking up at Sakura's surprised face.

Sakura had not even thought of that, when Tsunade told them about the mission. "Sasuke…" she whispered. She had happily forgotten about him, but now she felt her feelings for him welling up in her chest. She had never really been able to move on with her life. Sasuke had been an important friend to Naruto and her. For him to leave and betray them both had been a big blow. Naruto turned to look at Sakura. She could feel his eyes on her full of concern and sadness.

"Sakura-chan I promised you that I would get Sasuke back and I will not break that promise, that's my way of the ninja." She looked up at Naruto and smiled. How many times had she heard Naruto say that? She trusted him and believed in his words, if anyone was capable of bringing back Sasuke, it was Naruto. He had had not needed to tell her. She knew he would, though she could not help wondering what would happen if Sasuke was to return to the village. Not one of her friends and allies had been able to forgive Sasuke for betraying the village, and it was only because of the hokage's pardon that no one had said anything aloud. However, Sakura knew that if given the chance they would not hold back against him. Even her best friend and former rival, Ino would take the chance to give Sasuke a good smacking around.

Sakura sighed, she was giving up hope that everything could return to normal if Sasuke came home. A part of her almost wished that he would not show up on this mission. That would save both Naruto and her from disappointment. She was almost certain Sasuke would not willingly return with them. This was a realization she had forced herself in to seeing 3 years previously. Naruto and she had spent the best of 2 years going after Sasuke, and they had almost succeeded one time as well, though it had become painfully obvious to Sakura that Sasuke did not want to have anything to do with the pair. He considered them both weak and below his status. This had hurt Sakura far more that she had expected it to. She had thought that her feelings for this man had subsided over the years, only she had hid it under her perfect façade.

Tsunade sensed the mood and immediately redirected their focus back on the mission while explaining the details more thoroughly to the team-leader Kakashi. After Tsunade dismissed them, Kakashi gathered the team and told them a meeting place and time. Naruto then made a comment about not being late, which earned him a scowl from one pink haired kunoichi and a rude remark about his penis from the ink artist. Kakashi had already gone by then his nosed deeply burrowed in latest book of the 'Icha Icha' series. Sakura only shook her head and went out in to the streets of Konoha.

O O O

"- and you definitely need to get out more. Tell you what. When you get back from this mission, I'm gonna take you out and we'll find you a good man as well. God knows how long it's been since you had any sort of interaction with the opposite gender, and no, Naruto doesn't count. How is he feeling about this mission anyways? I bet he's as energetic as always, am I right? If someone can beat that bastard Sasuke's ass it's him and you know it. Oh, come on. Don't give me that look. Sasuke deserves a good beating for what he did to you. If it wasn't because Ibiki and dad needs _my_ help interrogating the guy Chouji and Shikamaru brought in last night, I'd go myself." Ino rambled as they walked down the streets of Konoha. They were headed for the usual café. Ino liked to come here, because this was where Chouji had taken her on their first date.

Sakura smiled at her friend, it was so easy being around Ino. You did not have to do a lot in her company. The only thing Ino craved was your ears and your attention, and of course, the occasional agreeing to whatever she was gossiping about. She felt at ease around Ino, she never had to put up a front and pretend to be something she was not. Ino knew her for what she was and for this Sakura was eternally grateful.

"- didn't you see that guy just giving you the elevator look? Seriously Forehead, you really need to be more aware of your surroundings, and before you say anything. No, I'm positive he was looking at you, not me. Don't beat yourself up so much, gees it's like history is repeating itself. Haven't we been through this already! Sakura you're beautiful and any man would be lucky to have you. You need to open your eyes. Everyone is always staring at you. It's actually quite a bit annoying sometimes as well. You get all the attention and you don't even want or acknowledge it."

Sakura just nodded and hoped Ino would move on to the next subject. She really was not in the mood to have this conversation again. She just did not want to be the center of attention. Most times, she just ignored the men ogling her. She knew it was her hair. It was pink and not a lot of people had ever seen someone with naturally pink hair. She gave up counting the numerous times she had old ladies coming up to her and asking if they could touch her hair and the girls asking about hair products. She just was not that fussed about her hair. Sure, she used cherry scented shampoo and conditioner for the comical value, but that was about it. She had kept her hair short because it was always in the way. There had been a time, long ago, where she cared about cosmetics and hair products. She had moved on and realized there were things in life more important than looks.

They turned around the corner, Ino still chatting away. Sakura, lost in thought, bumped in to a broad chest and caught a whiff of dog. She lost balance and fell backwards. Strong arms grabbed her before she could fall on her rear.

"Gees Sakura, I know you want me and all, but you don't have to throw yourself at me." Came a snickering voice. Sakura shot the dog shinobi the best glare she could muster and he immediately let her go after she regained her balance. "Alright, alright. It was just a joke you know." Kiba said in response and nervously rubbed the back of his neck.

She had not meant to be harsh. She knew Kiba was always playing around. So she chuckled "Scared of an innocent little girl are we?" Kiba snorted, but before he could respond, Ino joined in.

"Hey Kiba-kun, we're going to the café. Wanna join in?" Kiba looked at the two and then down to Akamaru who gave a short bark. He put on his best smile shrugged apologetically.

"Sorry, we're going to the training grounds, Shino is waiting for us there. Another time maybe." He grinned at Ino and winked at Sakura. "See ya around babe." Before Sakura could punch him, he had already gone.

Sakura sighed and noticed Ino staring intently at her. "What?"

Ino looked away and headed for the café on the opposite side of the street. "Nothing." Was all she said.

Sakura got a bad feeling. If Ino was quiet, it usually meant she was plotting something, and Sakura had a feeling she knew what about. "You can drop that thought right there, Ino."

Ino turned around and looked aghast "Why, I have no idea what you're talking about." She said innocently.

"Yes you do, and you're not setting me up with dog-breath." Sakura answered flatly.

Ino dropped her innocent façade and frowned. "Why not? He's hot, and he obviously has a thing for you."

Sakura rolled her eyes as they entered that café and found a table. Ino was always trying to set her up with guys, because apparently Ino's own love life was not enough for her. Ino had been together with Chouji for almost two years now, and they made a good couple. Chouji was so in love with Ino and always had to show her off to everyone who cared. Obviously, Ino loved the attention it gave her, though she would never betray Chouji. She loved him as much as he did her. Sometimes all their sweet-talking and public affection made Sakura feel sick and alone.

Sakura had slowly come to the conclusion that love was not real. Now, with her background in medicine, she knew how the body reacted and what really went on, on the inside. It was basically just a bunch of chemical reactions in your brain, it had absolutely nothing at all to do with your heart. Over time, those reactions were bound to fade. What was the point in starting a relationship with anyone when you knew that it would not last? It only meant that she would get her heart broken, again. Whenever she saw Ino and Chouji together, she would get a little sad. She knew that the kind of love they shared now was only temporary. They would eventually start to see each other's flaws and that would lead to fights, which in the end could only result in a break-up. She never said anything to her friend though, only smiled the best she could, while hurting on the inside.

"So, what do you think?" Ino asked, rousing Sakura from her thoughts.

"About what?"

"Well, about Kiba obviously." Ino rolled her eyes wondering if her friend ever actually listened to anything she said.

"Ino, stop trying to set me up with half of the village already."

"I'm just trying to help you Forehead." Ino crossed her arms in front of her. She only wanted the best for her friend, and she just could not understand why Sakura was so much against going on one single date with someone she knew and trusted. It was not as if going on a date would bind you to life with the other person. Nothing bad could come out of _one_ date.

"Don't worry so much about me I'm fine, honest!" Sakura sighed.

"So you _don't_ think Kiba is the slightest bit good looking?" Ino tried again.

"Well, he's not completely hard on the eyes, I suppose. But that's beside the point!"

Ino lightened up "Aha! I knew it!"

"Don't misunderstand Ino-pig!" Sakura warned.

"It's agreed then. When you come back I'll get you two on a date." A big smile started its way across the blonde girls face.

"INO! Stop it already, I've had-"

"When are you back from your mission by the way?" Ino looked out the window on to the street, the slightest hint of sadness in her voice. Shinobi did not always come back from missions alive these days. More and more people had come home in a bag or half dead. The number of missing-nins at the boarder had recently been increasing. The hokage had taken precautions by doubling the scouting missions and border controls, as well as increasing the number on members on these teams.

What was with people and interrupting her today anyways, she frowned "I don't know… We leave at dawn tomorrow the journey is only two days, but at civilian pace maybe four or five. Then there's the whole 'If-Sasuke-shows-up'-business, and you know what Naruto is like. He's not likely to just give up. Maybe a week and a half. Two weeks tops I'd say."

They were quiet for a while.

They both ordered some hot drinks. Autumn was almost upon them and the winds were bringing colder weather. Sakura had been busy lately at the hospital with people coming in with colds. Not much could be done about a cold, they were bound to happen and it was best to just let it run its course, still everyone had demanded the attention of all the nurses, so even some of the shinobi medics had been called in.

"Right I had enough of this gloomy mood." Ino stated. She then went on to talk about the latest date she and Chouji had been on and how romantic Chouji had been. Sakura just stared out of the window and listened to Ino rambling about how she had discovered a new marinade for which Chouji had praised her. Funny how Ino had changed and had gotten really in to this entire cooking thing. Sakura was not a bad cook, but she just could not be bothered spending more than 15 minutes in the kitchen. She had better things to do.

The two kunoichi sat together all afternoon talking about everything and nothing. However, Sakura still needed to get her things ready for the mission so they hugged and parted with a promise of going out when Sakura was back.


	3. First Impressions (R)

**Behind Enemy Lines**

**Disclaimer: **I do not own Naruto. **  
**

**Summary: **Its the overused plot of Sakura being kidnapped by the Akatsuki with a twist. Yay me for being original! Rated M for language, violence and later chapters. *Wink wink* Pairing: Deidara x Sakura - REWRITING IN PROGRESS!

**A/N: **Ugh some of the stuff I had written originally in this chapter was nothing less that cringeworthy! I have merged chapter two and tree, there was simply no reason for it to be two chapters. Most of the original chapter two was rewritten, it was just too silly.

O O O

_First Impressions_

Sakura had come early that morning, earlier than necessary. She was now waiting at the gates for the rest of her team to show up. Makoto had surprisingly also arrived early, he stood on the other side of the gate looking deep in thought. Sakura had felt a bit weary after only having slept three hours yesterday and had not had the chance to talk to him. She wanted to get to know him a little, if she had to protect him, she would want to know what kind of man he was.

Sakura tried to catch his eyes, though he did not look up. Instead, she walked over to him, bright smile on her lips. "Hello Makoto-san. My name is Haruno Sakura it's nice to meet you."

He quietly regarded her then gave a small nod.

"I'm sorry I didn't properly introduce myself yesterday. I had some things I needed to sort out before the mission." She started. It was only partly true though, she had not needed to see Ino before she left. Sakura had just happened to bump in to Ino on her way back to her house. It had been a while since they had proper talked, and then seemed as good a time as any.

"Yes, I remember, you were the one who disrespected the hokage and was almost an hour late for the mission overview." He said flatly.

_'Great, what a good first impression you made Sakura.' _

"Ah yes, you see I worked all night and thought I had time for a nap, but for some odd reason my alarm just didn't go off." Sakura strained herself to smile again.

Makoto looked towards the forest his face empty of any emotion. Sakura waited for him to reply. As seconds became minutes, she realized that he had no intention of replying. She was not quite sure if she should try again. His first impression of her had been a tardy and disorganized young woman. He had probably also seen an emotional wreck as well, when the subject of Sasuke had come up. She really had not shown herself from her best side yesterday. She wanted him to see, that she was not the kind of person he thought she was. Just when she was about to speak she heard him speak.

"Pathetic excuse of a kunoichi." Came a muttered remark.

_'What?!' _Her inner self was fuming.

_'Calm down Sakura, he has every right to be a little annoyed with you. You were very unprofessional yesterday.' _Sakura calmed herself.

_'Well he doesn't have to be downright rude!' _

"Excuse me?" Maybe she had heard wrong, but when he did not respond she was sure she had heard right. "Look yesterday was a bad day. I was exhausted and had a lot on my mind."

"Your personal life does not concern me, Haruno-san. This mission however does. I would feel better if your mind was focused on the mission at hand, not some trivial personal matter." Makoto said calmly.

This certainly was not going to go anywhere. Sakura decided to try again later, she was not sure she could keep herself from punching him if this conversation progressed any further. She contented herself to leaning against the wall instead.

This was a bad start to a mission. She had already started dreading this mission last night. She was not ready to see Sasuke yet. She had promised herself that next time she saw him she would fight him like the missing-nin and criminal he was. She wanted to show Sasuke that they did not need him anymore, that they could move on. She wanted to show him how strong she had become, to show him how much she had grown over the years. Now with this mission she had the chance, but she was not sure she was completely ready to give up on him yet.

However, now this mission just seemed to get worse. Makoto was not the kind of person she would like to protect, as a matter of fact, his cold impassive exterior reminded her so much of Sasuke. How could she protect someone she wanted to beat up herself? She sighed. It could become a problem if she could not get along with their client.

No, she should start thinking like a proper kunoichi. Maybe Makoto was right in a way. Could she really call herself a proper kunoichi if she let something this insignificant mess up her mission? She was always too emotionally involved with her missions, and that was very unprofessional. Emotional people did not think straight and in life or death situations that could become fatal, was what Tsunade had once told her, '_You need to keep your head clear'_ she heard her shishou's voice in her head. Sakura did not have to get along with the man. Even if she thought, the man was rude and insensitive. She still acted as his bodyguard on this mission and had to keep him out of harm's way. That was all there was to it.

_'Suck it up Sakura. You most likely won't ever see this man again after this is done.' _That was a small comfort.

She just wanted to be thru with this retched mission.

A while later a very drowsy looking Naruto showed up "Mornin' Sakura-chan." He yawned walking over to her. However, when Naruto saw the expression on Sakura's face, he carefully took a few steps backwards. He knew this expression well and a punch to his face usually followed after seeing it. By reflex, he managed to stutter out and apology, not really knowing what he had done wrong, but it must have been bad. When Sakura did not try to punch him, he lowered his guard cautiously.

"Sakura-chan?" he asked nervously.

Sakura noticed Naruto's defensive stance and smiled a wide fake smile. "Ah, good morning Naruto. Did you by any chance see Sai on your way here? He's usually here before you."

"That bastard probably got lost on the way out of his door." Naruto snickered

"That's funny coming from you dickless." Sai's voice came from the above. They both looked up and saw him sitting on the wall above them.

"How long have you been here?" Sakura asked.

Sai only shrugged and jumped down to join the other two and Makoto.

"That only leaves Kakashi-sensei. Knowing him we'll be sitting here till tomorrow." Sakura complained and closed her eyes. She did not have to wait long though. The silver-haired shinobi surprised them all by showing up only minutes later.

"You're early." Stated both Sakura and Naruto in amazement.

Kakashi looked confused at both of them. "Oh yes, there was this old lady and she dropped her bag a looked like she needed help. But she didn't." Sakura looked at her former teacher with a confused expression. Why was he making up excuses for being on time? Perhaps it was the years of always being late that had carved in the need to make up excuses. She would never understand what went on in that man's head. She just shook her head and decided to let it be.

"Everyone ready then?" Kakashi inquired, all three members of team Kakashi nodded and Makoto was already on his feet walking down the road towards the land of rivers.

Kakashi set after Makoto. "Sai you guard the rear, Naruto and I will take the front and Sakura stay close to Makoto." The mission had begun.

O O O

They were getting closer to the border, maybe only one days walk from here. It had already been three days since they set out from Konoha. Naruto was getting restless. They had not encountered any enemy shinobi at all. They were still in the Fire country, but with the recent disturbances at the borders had had the whole team on edge. It was putting it lightly by saying Naruto was disappointed at the lack of action and dark-haired sharingan users. Ever since midday yesterday, he had started to complain about how Tsunade had promised Sasuke would be there, which was not exactly true.

They had stopped for the night in a little clearing close to the main road. After having secured the perimeter, Naruto had put together a little fire to keep the autumn chill at bay. Sai had taken the first guard shift. Sakura had the early morning one. She had slept through most of the night safely knowing her teammates kept guard over them. Now, she sat high up in a tree watching as morning approached. Sakura could see the beginnings of sunrise at the horizon from the treetop. It was about time to move on. She jumped down and saw that most of them were already awake and packing their gear.

Only Naruto was still snoring, she turned to pack the rest of her stuff. When she was done, she gave a small eventless report of her shift to the team leader Kakashi. By then Naruto had woken up and was struggling to get his blanket to fit in his backpack. If only he folded it neatly he would have no trouble, but he would never learn.

Sakura was covering up the fireplace as Naruto sat down close to her. "It's a bit strange don't you think?" he inquired.

"What is?" Sakura looked at Naruto wondering what he had meant. There was actually a lot of things that seemed strange to her. The lack of enemies, some details about this mission, that was never thoroughly explained and even Makoto himself. There always seemed to be a strange aura about him, maybe it was just her eyes playing a trick on her, but sometimes the air close around Makoto seemed to shimmer, it was only very subtle and sporadically.

"Well, we haven't seen anyone since we left Konoha. I mean I know Tsunade-baachan told the civilians to stay home as much as possible or evacuate to Konoha, because of the things that have been going on. But don't you find it strange that we have not seen one single person, not even any other shinobis?" Naruto said quietly.

"I have been thinking the same. I can't be sure what exactly is going on, but I have a really bad feeling. Maybe Kakashi-sensei have noticed it too. We should probably talk to him about it." Sakura looked at Kakashi who once again only had eyes for his beloved book. "There's something off about Makoto as well, and I don't mean his attitude." She was well fed up with dealing with Makoto. He had been a royal pain in the ass ever since that first day.

Naruto nodded.

Kakashi called over the team. Every morning they had a little meeting on what to do if enemy shinobi showed up, and today was no different. They quickly went over the details. it was mostly for Naruto's sake. They all knew he was more than likely to forget about team formation and strategy than anyone else on the team.

Sakura and Naruto raised their concerns to Kakashi and Sai, they were not surprised to know, that both of them had their own suspicions as well. If even the sometimes-oblivious Naruto thought something was off, the other two shinobi were bound to have thought so as well. However, no one else had noticed Makoto's strange aura. '_Must have been my eyes playing tricks on me' _she thought to herself.

O O O

Several hours later, they were walking in their usual formation, when Naruto came up to Sakura with a grim look on his face. "Someone is following us." He whispered.

Sakura stretched out thin lines of chakra, he was right. One foreign chakra presence, but despite it being a single other, it was huge. With the exception of Naruto, Sakura had never felt anything like it before. Naruto had the kyuubi, the demon fox's chakra. However, this was one human, not a jinchuuriki. It was quite a terrifying presence, but he was one they were four. He was at a disadvantage. In a fight, they could come out on top, with a little bit of strategy and cooperation.

"So you noticed it too." She heard Kakashi whisper silently from the front. He had been quiet almost all the day. As if he was thinking too hard to speak, but she knew Kakashi, he was always thinking of the next step, and he rarely told them what he was thinking.

"Should we mention it to Makoto?" She asked Kakashi.

"No, he hasn't noticed it. Let's not worry him with that." He said quietly.

"We might have to. If this monster behind us chooses to catch up." Sai had come up from the rear. They stopped. "If he is here to fight us he will come, be sure of that. Someone with chakra like that is not just someone we can outrun, especially not with a civilian."

They looked at Makoto. He at the as to ask why they had stopped. Kakashi nodded. Makoto had the right to know he was in danger, with this fight now being inevitable.

"Makoto-san," began Kakashi. "I regret to tell you we have a tail, someone's following us, and we will have to make a stand against him. He is alone though, so don't worry we will take care of this matter. We will continue ahead to find a better spot this will not do." Kakashi motioned to the steep slope to the left of them. "If we have to fight it will be on our terms, we better hurry though."

With that, they hurried down the road. Several minutes later, they approached a clearing in the forest, the steep slope behind them. Sakura looked around and she saw the sun high up in the sky. _It must be around noon _she thought.

"This will do." She heard Kakashi saying. "Prepare yourselves."

Without saying anything, Makoto pulled out a kunai of one of his pockets and took a defensive stance.

_'A kunai? That means he's a shinobi as well. That's strange. If he's a shinobi, why didn't he get help from his village to do this mission?'_ Sakura thought. The feeling of dread and anger rushing through her. They would not have had to keep this incredibly slow pace if he was a shinobi. This mission could have gone quite a bit faster and they might have been able to avoid this fight. Then another thought struck her. _'Maybe all this was a set up.' _

She looked suspiciously at Makoto, though he had not moved to attack any of her team members. He was just standing with his back against her, kunai raised to head level and eyes fixed on the forest around them. This was no time to be suspicious though, the massive chakra presence was coming, and fast.

Their opponent was circling around the clearing. Then like a bolt from the blue sky, he was in the clearing. Not just some random place. No, he was standing with his back against Makoto, and it did not seem to bother him. The man was tall and powerful, but that was not the first thing Sakura noticed about him. When she saw that Akatsuki cloak, she immediately took a step back. She felt ever muscle in her body tense. The cloak reminded her of her last meeting with an Akatsuki member, luckily that had gone well, she had defeated Sasori. Now she was once again face to face with another of these S-ranked criminals.

She tried to swallow her fear, but it seemed to take over her entire body.

The Akatsuki member slowly took of his hat, and revealed his identity. Sakura had never seen this man, but it looked like Naruto and Kakashi knew whom he was by the way they had both reacted by taking another step backwards and how Naruto had ground his teeth. The first thing Sakura saw was the short blue hair and the blue skin – '_Wait what? Blue hair and skin?'_ Sakura stared at the tall man. He was indeed blue and not just that he had three cracks on either side of his face that looked suspiciously a lot like gills. The look on this strong and horrifying shark-like man's face made her insides turn. The grin on his face was predatory and terrifying, the small grey eyes filled with malevolence. The only thing that kept her from throwing up was her will.

Makoto just stood there and seemed so small in the presence of the other man. Makoto had not yet moved. Sakura frowned. She should have listened to her gut feeling all this time. So it had been a trap after all, knowing that this man had walked beside her, slept beside her and eaten the same food for a few days made her shiver and she once again felt the fear rising.

"It... It was a trap?" She managed to stutter.

The shark-like man chuckled. "Oh, you must the clever one." He looked at her and snickered.

Makoto also removed his ever present hat, and when the sunlight hit the face of this man, she was sure he looked familiar somehow. She just could not see where she might have seen this man before. Then her memory caught up. This was the Akatsuki duo who had gone after Naruto years back, Jiraya had luckily been around at that time and had chased them off.

"So, it was you all the time, Uchiha Itachi." Kakashi said coolly.

_'Uchiha...'_

Sakura's heart jumped a beat. He was Sasuke's older brother. The one that had killed the entire Uchiha clan, he was the one who Sasuke had sworn to kill. She looked at him. She could see the resemblances between him and his brother. They looked so much alike. She saw Sasuke in him, though instead of that seething hatred Sasuke had always carried, there was nothing. He was cold and emotionless. She shivered. She not only stood face to face with Akatsuki members, but also with the person who had killed his friends and family in cold blood.

Sakura heard the shark-man chuckle. "You people are so easy to fool. You can't even see through a lousy genjutsu like that..." He did not end his sentence. He could feel Itachi's eyes burning holes in him. He knew that he had just humiliated his partner, by calling his genjutsu lousy.

"Kisame you take care of the kyuubi, the kunoichi and the other one, I'll finish this famously pathetic copy ninja." Itachi said. There was no tone in his voice, nothing indicated his anger or humiliation or any emotions at all.

Kisame looked at the three of them. "With pleasure, Itachi." He grinned maliciously.

In a split second, Naruto was in front of her. "If you just as much as touch her hair, I swear, I will kill you!"

"I'd like to see you try, kyuubi." Kisame smirked.

Naruto growled at him.

"Watch yourselves he's dangerous." Kakashi warned.

Sakura gave Kakashi a knowing look "Yeah, and Itachi too. Be careful." Sakura answered quietly.

All of a sudden, Itachi threw his kunai at Kakashi. Luckily, for Kakashi's quick reactions he was able to dodge it. He countered by throwing a handful of shurikens at Itachi, they hit him and threw him back at a tree. Itachi stared at Kakashi and he realized that it was only a clone to steal his attention. Kakashi removed his hetai-ate from his concealed eye and proceeded to close the other. You could never be too careful when dealing with the master of the sharingan. Kakashi turned around to try to locate his opponent, though he nowhere to be found.

Sakura did not see any more of that fight. She turned toward Sai and Naruto when she heard Naruto groan. Kisame had cut him with the chakra-eating blade – Samehada, and had readied another swing at Naruto. Sai had quickly taken a defensive stance between the two. Naruto quickly got on his feet, and jumped out of Kisame's range.

Kisame growled and swung his sword at Sai who managed to dodge all attacks. Samehada was a big sword and had quite a scary ability, but it had a weakness. It was slow and used a lot of strength from its user.

Sakura hurried over to Naruto. "Are you hurt?" She asked quickly.

Naruto sent her a bright smile. "No it's okay. I'll protect you for sure! That's a promise, Sakura-chan."

Sakura smiled back. "Are you sure it's not me, who should be protecting you?" She asked teasingly. "You're the one who's hurt." They heard a loud crack and Kisame had managed to get a good hit on Sai who was now slumped underneath a tree in the far end of the clearing.

"Sai!" Sakura shouted.

"Enough small talk!" Kisame yelled and threw himself at both of them.

Sakura only just got away before Samehada landed between Naruto and herself. She immediately dashed to where Sai's unconscious body lay. '_Must have been quite a powerful strike, remind me not to be hit by that' _she thought to herself.

Naruto created a few clones and attacked Kisame head-on, though his clones did not get many hits on the powerful Akatsuki member and were quickly wiped out. Naruto focused to create more clones. His tactics had always been _the more the better_, though Sakura and Kakashi had always tried to tell him to only use a few, but use them smart. That would conserve his chakra as well, but of course, Naruto had never listened to them. However, when he tried to summon his chakra he found himself going low already. He had overlooked the meaning of taking a hit by Samehada. The blade had eaten quite a fair bit of his chakra, Naruto would have to try conserve what he had left.

Naruto jumped backwards thinking hard on what to do. He could always borrow a bit of the kyuubi's chakra, though this had its consequences. Last time he had used the kyuubi's power he had very nearly taken down his own team as well as the enemy. It was not a power Naruto would want to use, though sometimes it came automatically when his anger arose.

Naruto summoned a few more clones and sent them at Kisame, making sure they dodged his counterattacks. Naruto then threw himself at the blue shinobi and kept him at bay. It was then Sakura popped out of the ground underneath Kisame's feet and directed a chakra-laden fist at the man's head. It was easy to see that the attack had surprised Kisame, but his almost animalistic instincts alerted him right away, and he twisted just in time to save himself from severe injuries, but he could only direct her hit to a less vital part of his body. She hit his left shoulder. For a second everything was quiet, and then Sakura heard big loud cracks from Kisame's shoulder indicating she broke it in to several pieces.

Kisame flew to the other side of the glade, and smacked against a tree and went right through it and in to the next. However, Kisame never allowed himself to burst out a cry of pain, only when he got up he let out a low grunt. His small grey eyes stared daggers at Sakura.

"Damn you, Pinky!" He shouted at her.

Sakura smirked at the pain she had caused him, though she was not sure she liked her new nickname. Before she had attacked Kisame, she had made sure to heal Sai's most critical injuries and moved his body to a safer place.

"Nice one, Sakura." Naruto blinked at her.

From the other side of the clearing the two comrades heard a groan and a thump. Sakura turned her to see what had happened. She saw her sensei collapsed on the ground in front of Itachi. A whispered _'No.'_ escaped her lips.

"Kakashi-sensei!" She cried as she ran to her fallen leader. Never before had the two comrades seen their strong and intelligent sensei collapse. The sight was terrifying. If Itachi could beat their sensei with such ease, he must be ten times as strong as she had first anticipated. She felt for Kakashi's pulse, and put her head to his chest, but there was only a loud silence of what was missing. Naruto looked at her, but the paleness of her face and the sadness written in her eyes told Naruto everything.

For a short moment, Sakura thought she saw a hint exhaustion in Itachi's eyes, though Itachi quickly put that impassive façade up again. He had used the mangekyo sharingan for a long period of time. This obviously had drained him of his chakra. Naruto saw it too, and rushed towards Itachi get his revenge, and before Sakura could stop him, Kisame appeared in front of Itachi and punched Naruto with full force in his face. He flew back in to a tree and had all the air in his lunges forced out of him, when another punch hit him in his stomach.

Naruto coughed, a few drops of blood followed. Naruto only smeared the blood of his cheek and shot a deathly glare at Kisame and Itachi.

"I'm going to avenge you Kakashi-sensei." He said looking at the ground. His voice was shaking, and Sakura knew he was crying, but it was almost impossible for everyone ells to see. "You've done so much for me, this is the least I can do." With this, the familiar read chakra started leaking out of Naruto, and Sakura could only watch in horror. He looked back at her to ensure her that everything was going to be fine. She saw his cheerful blue eyes had turned a fearsome and hostile color red. Naruto turned back to his opponents and by then a red tail had formed of the chakra, and another was starting to appear as well.

"_You will die for what you've done!"_ With this, he sprinted towards the two Akatsuki members with a rasengan in his hands.

First, there was this great big light and everything was quiet. Sakura thought she had gone deaf, but then a loud roar was heard, it was so loud that Sakura had to hold her ears and scream in pain. The pressure on her eardrums was enormous. She was thrown a good hundred meters backwards and hit her head on something hard. She felt herself slowly slipping out of consciousness. She remembered thinking to herself that lightning must have struck before everything went black.


	4. Caught (R)

**Behind Enemy Lines**

**Disclaimer: **I do not own Naruto. **  
**

**Summary: **Its the overused plot of Sakura being kidnapped by the Akatsuki with a twist. Yay me for being original! Rated M for language, violence and later chapters. *Wink wink* Pairing: Deidara x Sakura - REWRITING IN PROGRESS!

**A/N: **Well, added little things here and there, fixed whatever errors i could and changed some scenes a little. Nothing major.

O O O

_Caught_

Sakura heard their voices in the distance. The world was fuzzy and dark. It made her feel slightly nauseous. Slowly the voices became clearer. She could not concentrate on what about they were talking. Her head ached painfully. She felt as if someone had thrown a big hammer at her, and hit her right in the back of her head. She groaned. Instinctively she tried to move her hand to her head. That was when she realized that she had been tied up and blindfolded. She was lying on her side and she could feel sharp edges cut in to her skin. Pain struck up her left leg. She tried not to wriggle around too much. Movement seemed to intensify the pain. Actually, her entire body seemed to hurt. _'Every single bone must be broken.' _She thought, but she knew, that was an exaggeration.

The voices were quiet for a short while, and then Sakura felt someone kicked her in her stomach. She felt the air leaving her lungs, she gasped for air. The throbbing pain in the rest of her body now forgotten and a new pain overtook. The person, who had kicked her, had hit her right in a very sore rib. A violent cough soon followed. Her head was still heavy and everything seemed a difficult challenge, had her mind been clear, she would easily have been able to channel a small amount of chakra to the wounded body and at least sooth some of this intensive pain. She could feel a person kneeled at her side.

"That's for breaking my shoulder, Pinky." He said with a deep raging voice.

'_No, this can't be true. What happened? Where is Naruto and Kakashi-sensei? Where am I?' _She thought, still panting heavily fighting to catch her breath again. A memory shot through her hazy mind. One where something had been missing. Something that had always been there soothing and steady. She remembered her hand holding a wrist and her head on top of a chest. Something had been missing. She felt a stinging in her eyes. Tears soon started welling up, but were caught in the cloth tied around her head. She had to know for sure. She had to know about Naruto, about what had happened. She could not bear it if the Akatsuki had killed Naruto as well. He was her best friend. He always stood by her side, even in the hard times. He was the one she knew she could always count on. He was there comforting her on the day Sasuke left, he had sworn to find him and bring him back to her.

"Where are they?" A thin and raspy voice asked, it sounded somehow familiar. She wondered for a while where it had come from. It was only when another voice right next to her answered that she realized it had been her own.

"Who? The kyuubi brat or the copy-ninja?" Kisame asked. Sakura's brow furrowed. What about Sai? Why had he not mentioned Sai? Maybe he had managed to get away, maybe they had forgotten about him, if only he had been so lucky, at least she would know one of her teammates were safe. She decided not to ask about him, in case they actually _had_ forgotten about him.

"Both... both of them. Where... are they?" She asked again a bit unsecure.

Kisame smirked and removed the blindfold. Sakura slowly opened her eyes, and looked in to those two small gray predatory eyes of his. Her weak condition seemed to amuse the Akatsuki member. She quickly took in her surroundings. The stone floor and the rocky ceiling indicated that she was in a cave, she could hear the wheezing sound from outside and she figured that a storm had come upon them, so they had had taken shelter in the cave. A light flickered and she saw a small campfire. She could count four figures in the tight space of the stony cave, one of these being Kisame, but before she could identify the others, Kisame's voice rang in the cave and caught her attention.

"Well the brat is right there," He pointed at the other end of the cave. Her eyes looked at the end of his finger. She saw, what she originally had thought to be a boulder, was actually a person lying in an awkward position as if he had been thrown there like a sack of potatoes. She saw the blonde strands sticking out to absolutely everywhere, and with another flicker of light the hetai-ate lit up and shone for only a second, but in that second Sakura saw the symbol of the fire country. She knew then that what Kisame had said was true.

"Naruto!" She cried out, when she saw his lifeless body lying on the stone floor. She squirmed trying to get closer to him, but pain shot through her again and she stifled another pain filled whimper.

"And as for that other fool." She stared at the man in front of her again. _'Kakashi-sensei...'_ She thought quietly. "We left him to die, if he wasn't dead already when we left."

"You bastards!" She burst out, defiance shining in her eyes. _'I could have saved him. I could have healed him.' _She cried inwardly. '_I should have done CPR the minute I couldn't feel his pulse.' _If she had been free of these ropes, she would have hit Kisame in his ugly fish-face, and done quick work of the cave in her rage. "I'll kill you. I swear to fucking Kami, I'll kill you all!"

Kisame just laughed, and glared at her.

"Get over yourself, Pinky." Another voice spoke up. Sakura looked around to locate the voice. It had come from the campfire. Sakura saw the shadows of the three other men. One of them had stood up, and was walking towards her. When he came closer, she saw the familiar Akatsuki cloak. He was tall, but not as Kisame. His blonde hair seemed to light up in the cave. Some of the hair was put in a high ponytail. She knew this man she had seen him before.

"You... You are...? Deidara." She whispered.

Deidara smirked. "Would you look at that? I'm famous, yeah." He said in amusement, though his amusement was short-lived. He froze, and his smile turned in to a wry grimace. He leaned over to take a better look at Sakura. He grabbed her chin and turned her head a bit to the right and then to the left, and then as if he got his suspicion confirmed, he let her head fall to the ground again. Without another word, he went over to the two others and sat down.

"What the hell was that all about Deidara?" Kisame asked.

"This kunoichi, together with that old hag, killed Sasori-danna." Deidara said coolly.

Kisame chuckled and grinned. "Ohh… So a feisty one then."

Deidara shot Kisame a dangerous look. "You can say that, yeah."

For a short moment, the two S-ranked criminals stared evilly at each other. The small cave suddenly felt even more cramped.

"The sooner we split up the better." A third voice said which Sakura soon identified as Itachi's expressionless voice.

"Hn" Deidara nodded.

"We'll take the kyuubi back to the base, and you'll take care of that kunoichi." Itachi said monotonously.

'_Take care of the kunoichi?' _Sakura thought. Did they mean to kill her? _'Of course they do. They are the Akatsuki. Baka.'_ For a short moment panic raced through her body, she was not ready to die yet. She knew that as a kunoichi, she should always be ready to face death. It was not death she was scared of, it was life and the things she had yet to do. However, she would do anything to protect her friends. If she had to die, she would not go quietly.

"You want to kill the kunoichi?" The fourth shadow now interrupted.

"Of course moron. She's of no further use to us, we already got the kyuubi. Why would we need her?" Deidara answered with a slight tone of disbelieve. Deidara turned to face the Uchiha. "I just don't see why I have to do it, I mean you had the chance in that clearing, why bother going through all this trouble to tie her up and bring her along. Itachi."

"Well, Tobi noticed that she can heal people." The fourth shadow interrupted. Sakura was not sure if he referred to himself or some fifth unknown person. "She might even be able to heal your eyes, Itachi-senpai."

"She's the apprentice of the hokage, yeah." Deidara thoughtfully added.

The three ninja turned their heads towards the kunoichi lying tied up on the ground.

"She is indeed." Itachi said thoughtfully, while staring at Sakura with his crimson eyes. Sakura met his gaze and a sudden fear overwhelmed her. She resisted the urge to let out a small yelp. Those eyes of his were so fascinating and yet so dangerous. Staring directly in to the sharingan was a death sentence she knew this. However, she felt herself unable to look away. "I had the same thought, though this will need to be discussed with Pain. Therefore, Deidara, you and Tobi will need to keep her confined. Go to base three, we will meet up there once we have delivered the kyuubi. This will also work as a safe place for when we extract the bijuu."

The blonde shinobi seemed to think about this, a line formed between his eyes "Fine. Let me just say this though, I am not taking orders from you, I just happen to agree with this plan." Sakura noticed a slight tone of contempt in Deidara's voice. His last statement clearly held and unspoken warning. It was obvious to anyone, that Deidara did _not_ like Itachi very much. Sakura could not help wondering why the blond male held such disdain for the other.

Itachi was just as cold as ever. If he hated the blonde shinobi as much as he hated him, no one would ever know for sure. Itachi hid his emotions deep down in his conscious, if they even existed. After a short staring competition, mainly from Deidara's side. Itachi nodded.

"You've got the wrong idea. I'd sooner die than help you bastards out!" Sakura suddenly barked.

"No one gave you any option to do otherwise. You just have to do as you're told, Pinky." Kisame growled and kicked her again, this time harder than before. Her surroundings suddenly became blurred, and just before everything went black, she heard a familiar voice.

"I will… protect you, Sakura-chan."

Then she passed out.

O O O

"I just hope she doesn't give us any trouble, yeah." Deidara said. He could feel her weight on his shoulder. She was not heavy at all. Every time he jumped to another branch, he felt her head bounce of his back. He sighed. He just knew this was going to cause trouble, there was no way she would just be quiet and follow their every order. He felt a headache coming on. Why was he always stuck with the annoying jobs anyways? He knew that the kyuubi had been Itachi's job, and therefore he should be the one delivering the kyuubi to their leader, and keeping the two Konoha captives together was just asking for trouble. He knew he had to take her, but he just could not help feeling as if he had just picked the short straw.

Deidara sighed again.

Tobi looked at his partner. He knew very well what was bothering him. He had not want Itachi and Kisame to bring the kunoichi. When the two of them had shown up, the kyuubi boy had raced towards Itachi and Kisame. Had it not been for one of Deidara's clay explosions, it would have looked a lot worse for the two Akatsuki members. In fact, Itachi and Kisame should be grateful to Deidara. Honestly, a 'thank you' would have been in order. But did anyone ever appreciate Deidara's art? No. No one could see it. They were all deluded.

He had voiced his opinion to kill of the rest of their group, when they secured the kyuubi boy. That would have been the safest bet, that way there would be no avengers. Sure, some retaliation from Konoha was to be expected, but no rescue missions would be sent out if they were dead. However, Itachi had had other plans apparently and would not listen to reason. He was a fool. Deidara could see right through that cold and calculating exterior. Itachi always found some new way to get on his nerves. It was not the same way as Tobi got on his nerves. Tobi was just stupid. Itachi did not even have to do anything to get on Deidara's nerves. Just being in the same space as the sharingan user made him want to blow him to pieces.

The sun was setting in the horizon and Deidara decided to set up camp now before it got too dark. He signaled to Tobi to stop.

"We're setting up camp here." He said and pointed at a small clearing in the trees.

Tobi nodded.

O O O

When Sakura woke, it was late. She could not tell how late it was, only that it was dark and the moon had been up for a while. She felt as if she had just woken from a bad dream. She could not quite figure out where she was. She was outside, of that she was sure. The chill surrounding her body told her that she had no blanket and there was no fire to keep her warm. She was not exactly lying in a comfortable position on her side with her arms behind her back. In a split second, she realized that her hands and legs were tied together, and then she remembered their mission. She remembered that none other than the Akatsuki captured her.

She sat up immediately. She winced the pain in her leg shot through her. She looked at it and saw a large gash, about 10 centimeters, from just above the knee to her inner thigh. Luckily, it had not been deep enough to cut through important arteries, but it would still have to be mended if she did not want a scar. The pain in her head had slightly diminished. She could think clear now and she could control her chakra again, that was a good sign. Head injuries could be very dangerous. Her rib still hurt as well, though she doubted it was broken, possibly only bent, but could still be dangerous. If left, it could puncture her lung. Her sore body was without a doubt also covered in several cuts and bruises. She would need to prioritize, if she ever got a chance to heal herself without the two Akatsuki noticing. Her head was the most important to check over, then the rib, the leg and then the superficial bruises and cuts.

"About time you woke up, yeah." She heard a voice say behind her. Sakura tensed and turned her head to face him. She managed to wriggle herself into a sitting position.

He had been watching her while she was asleep. She felt an anger building up inside her. She did not want to answer him. She only clenched her fists and glared in to two sapphire blue eyes. She needed to get out of here. She needed to be free of these ropes. She would never stand a chance against him with her hands bound. Her mind was running through countless of possible scenarios. She desperately tried to find one that would have a positive outcome. Right now, the only ideas that did not end with her getting killed, were if she did _not _try to break free. She would have to be patient and wait until the right moment, where they were not paying attention to her. She decided to try to pry some information on Naruto out of him instead.

"Where is Naruto? Why have you brought me here? Where am I?" She asked.

Deidara only smirked staring right back at her emerald eyes. She tried again.

"Where is Naruto, you fucking bastard?"

"Easy now, Pinky." He said. "The kyuubi has been brought to a safe place, yeah." He said and grinned. "He won't come and save you. Once we bring you to our base, we will start extracting the bijuu." He did not see the point in retaining that information from her.

Sakura's eyes widened, she knew what that meant. She had seen it once a while back, when she had fought Sasori and tried to save Gaara. The Akatsuki wanted the bijuu, but Konoha still had not been able to figure out why, but it definitely could not be a good thing. They wanted the very soul of the demon inside Naruto. This would without doubt kill Naruto in the cruelest way, without him being able to defend himself. She could not let that happen.

"No! You can't do this. How can anyone be so cruel?!" Sakura cried, struggling to get free of the ropes. Screw tactics and clever strategies, she just wanted to rip this bastards eyes out.

"Well I just follow orders you know, yeah." Deidara said and leaned back against a tree.

"What the hell is that supposed to mean? If you don't think it necessary then don't do it!" She knew that bargaining with the Akatsuki members was a pointless idea, but she had to try everything. "Konoha would pay you if you messed up their plans." Could she not at least come up with a less obvious lie? She cursed herself.

"I somehow doubt that." He grinned at her desperate try. "I don't really care about the Akatsuki's plans, but at least they allow me to perform my art. They could be ripping apart the whole world for all I care."

Sakura would hear no more of this nonsense she had had enough. She snarled at him. She hated this. She did not have any smart comebacks to throw at him. "Don't you see your leader would never share his power with anyone, that's how criminals are!" She spat. "He will probably kill you all when he has achieved his goal."

Deidara stared at her. "That might be true. But if that's the case I'll just make sure to blow him to pieces when he turns his back on us."

"You are so ignorant!"

"And you are a pain in the ass! No one ever told you that?"

Man, she wanted to punch him hard, her fists were shaking with anger.

"As soon as I get free of these robes I'm going to kill you and all the rest of the Akatsuki! I'm never going to heal Itachi's eye either for the matter. You might as well kill me! I'm going to find Naruto and-"

"-and you're going to do what we tell you to, even if it's healing those fucking eyes or your kyuubi friend is dead." Deidara growled. "Well, he will probably be dead anyways, but you are not given any other choice." He turned around. He had had enough of this.

"You can't force me to do it." Sakura hissed.

"The Akatsuki do what they want, they don't care about having to force people to do whatever. They do it all the time, and you're no different." Deidara turned around to face her. Sakura could see the rage in his eyes, she moved backwards to lean against a tree. Still staring in to his rage filled eyes. She was sure he was going to kill her any second.

"Don't you dare tell me what it's like to be forced in to something you don't want to do." Deidara yelled again he stepped towards her and grabbed her throat. "I wouldn't even be here, if I had the choice! I never wanted to be in the Akatsuki in the first place. I was forced to join this god forsaken organization!" Deidara hissed inches from Sakura's own. The expression on his face changed and a new expression revealed to Sakura that Deidara regretted his just spoken words. He just turned around and walked away, leaving Sakura with his words still echoing in her head.

'_He was forced to join.'_ What did that mean? Sakura had always believed that Akatsuki members had chosen their own path, but Deidara never had the chance to choose for himself. Sakura felt a strange mixed feelings inside her. Firstly, she felt anger. Anger towards those who dared to take away her freedom, he was one of them, but she also felt a tinge sorry for Deidara. She quickly shook her head, no. He was one of them. He was going to kill her best friend. He did not deserve her sympathy.

She had to find Naruto and bring him back to Konoha. She had to save him. She had always been the one who had been saved, but not this time. This time she had to do the saving. If she wanted to save Naruto, she would have to stay alive for now, until she saw her chance to escape. For now, she would have to go with them. She would not come quietly though.

O O O

The light of morning sun was forcing its way through the small gab in the curtains. The bed in the dim lighted room hosted a body. The body did not move except for the steady heaving of the chest that indicated the life in it. Everything else was lost, dropped in the bin as an expired item that nobody wants. This person's soul only existed because of the rhythmic heartbeats. The eyes stared at the loft, showing no sign of life in them.

'_Lost ' _he thought._ 'Everything is lost.'_

A nurse stepped inside. The man seemed not to have noticed or just not to care. She walked to the bed with quick mouse-like steps and gazed down at the man in the bed. She sighed and went around the bed and drew back the curtains and let the light enter the room fully. She turned around again to face the man, but there was no reaction from him.

"Can you tell me who you are?" She asked, her voice was kind and soft.

The man turned his head and gazed at her. "My existence doesn't matter anymore." He simply said and turned his head back to face the loft again. "I have failed them. I'm so sorry I should have listened to you. Now they're lost too…" He mumbled talking to seemingly no one.


	5. A bad day?

**Behind enemy lines**

**Disclaimer: **I do not own Naruto. **  
**

**Summary: **Sakura, Naruto and Kakashi is going on a mission, something unexpected happens. They run in to the Akatsuki. They are unable to defeat them and the Akasuki takes Naruto and Sakura with them as captives. Rated M for later chapters. Pairing: Deidara x Sakura.

**A/N: **Yeah so I finally wrote the next chapter. Hehe.. I made a few changes, for exampel Deidara says "Yeah" instead of "un" I thought that's more like the Deidara I want to show in this fiction.

Well I have a lot of exams here in the coming weeks, so I probably won't write so much, because I have to read up on the curriculum.. ;)

Oh yeah this chapter was pretty long, but I guess that long chapters are good, or so do I think anyways. From now on I'll try to make longer chapters.  
But then there will be less of them.. xD

-- Yes I know some of the sence is a bit cheesy, but the story has to move forward. Right?

* * *

**A bad day?**

It was late spring. The trees were stretching up at the sky, to get as much sunlight as possible. The birds were playfully flying in every direction and chirping. Even if it was still only morning the warmth of the sun was perceptible, and the life in the forest had only just awoken from their sleep. Even the tiniest of animals were up. Sakura felt a small tinkling on her left hand, she shook her hand in her sleep, but the tinkling didn't go away, she shook her hand again this time a bit more forceful, yet again she failed to shake the tinkling away. Slowly Sakura woke feeling a bit groggy. Silently she cursed the tinkling that had made her wake up, her hands were still bound, but the knot had loosened a bit so she was able to rub the tinkling against the small of her back, which made it go away. She sighed in relieve, but now she was awake and the birds chirping rang in her head, she knew she wouldn't get any more sleep this morning.

Slowly she opened her eyes, she really wanted to rub the sleep in her eyes away, but since her hands were still bound this was impossible. She tried to rub her eyes with her shoulder, she managed to get some of the sleep away, but there was still some there, which really bugged her. She rested her head on the ground on the exact spot where it had been all night. Then she just lay there and watched the dew cling to the small blades of grass. After a while she turned so she looked up in the sky. She could tell by the position of the sun that it was still very early.

While she lay there watching the sun rise higher on the sky and looking at the clouds that passed, she came to think. Just thinking of everything and nothing at the same time. She thought of her life up until now, she had been a little girl living in a village, well protected and sheltered from all harm by the shinobis from the same village. She always admired the shinobi for their strength and courage, when she got older she found herself attending a school, no normal school that was for sure, but a school where the children were taught the principals of a shinobi, and mostly how to become a shinobi. In other words she was attending the Shinobi School or the academy as it was normally called.

She was the smartest girl in the class, she knew all the shinobi rules by heart, the main reason she was studying so hard was because of one boy in particular, his name was Sasuke Uchiha. She admired him and adored him, but she wasn't alone, she had competition from her best friend Ino Yamanaka. Their friendship was pretty much ruined just because of this boy. Smiles and laughs became contempt and scowls.

She graduated the academy with top scores and was put in a three-man cell, team 7, which consisted of the boy she adored and the boy she despised. Their sensei was a silver-haired jounin, who never was on time, a man she thought of as odd but clever. Later on she came to admire him more than anyone, she looked up to him. Her time with team 7 seemed far away now. She had come to love all of the members, and her heart broke in half when one of them decided to leave the village to seek more power. After that she didn't want to be as useless as she had felt when they were on missions together, so she decided to also go and seek power, but in a different way. She became the apprentice of the Hokage of Konoha. She trained hard and slowly she became a strong and independent kunoichi.

Her time with team 7 had been the best time of her life, she had learned a lot and made great friends, but now lying here on the ground being the captive of dangerous men, it seemed so long ago, like an eternity. 

When she thought of Kakashi, who was probably dead by now, a tear of true sadness rolled down her chin. Suddenly something blocked her view of the sun, the sudden darkness of the shadow from this thing made her blink a few times. Then it spoke.

"Is she sad?"

Sakura was confused was it talking to her? She couldn't see anyone ells in the near. After getting more used to the darkness from the shadow she saw that the thing actually was a person, it didn't surprise her to see the person wearing an Akatsuki cloak, but what did surprise her was the fact that this person was wearing an orange mask, with only one hole for the right eye.

When she didn't reply the masked man's question, he spoke again.

"You can't be sad." He said and bent down over her and patted her on her head. "This-" he pointed at himself. "-is Tobi. Nice to meet you Sakura-san." Sakura became only more confused. First thing, he talked about himself in a 3rd person's point of view. Secondly, this guy was from the Akatsuki why was he being so polite. Sakura thought the members of the Akatsuki were all tough, ruthless and violent, but apparently her thought was proven wrong.

"Um… Nice to meet you too Tobi" She managed to say.

If she could see behind the mask she would have seen the genuine smile on Tobi's face. The fact that she was nice to him too, made him happy, he wasn't used to the politeness from others around him. Everyone in that Akatsuki thought he was an idiot, well that was also true, but still he thought it was nice that someone talked nicely to him too.

"Deidara-sempai is coming back again soon, and he told Tobi to wake you up, so we could get going soon again." Tobi said.

"Um ok…" Sakura said muddled.

She managed to sit up and from there on get on her feet. A moment later she felt the chakra of another person coming towards her and Tobi. She guessed it was Deidara. She was right. Just a minute later he jumped down from a branch and stood before them smirking slightly. Sakura felt the anger from last night's fight bubble up inside her again, she glared fiercely at Deidara. When he noticed her glare his smirk became only wider as if her anger amused him.

"Hello Deidara-sempai. Tobi woke her up as you said he should, because Tobi is a good boy!" Tobi said happily.

"Yeah whatever" Deidara said carelessly. "We should go now"

"Where are you taking me?" Sakura demanded to know

Deidara gave her an odd look as if he just discovered that the girl actually could talk.

"Well Tobi and I have a mission, but we're taking you to a place where you won't be any trouble, yeah" He answered.



"Why?"

"What?" Deidara said in confusion.

"Why didn't you just kill me? What use am I for you?" Sakura knew this was dangerous questions but she really wanted to know what they planned to use her for. They already had Naruto. She wasn't just bait to lure him out. _'Well duh. They want you to heal Itachi's eyes. That's so obvious.'_ Inner Sakura said. _'Well that can't be it, can it? Maybe the Akatsuki needs a medic?'_ she thought. _'Yeah now you're dreaming.'_ Inner Sakura rolled her eyes.

"Well you'll have to talk to someone else about that, if it were to me you would probably be dead now, yeah." Deidara grinned.

Sakura shot deadly glares at him. She was sure he meant what he said, but still who was he to think he could just kill Haruno Sakura like that. Again Deidara smirked at her anger, he didn't take her serious, and he was greatly underestimating her.

'_Hit that freak!'_ Inner Sakura screamed, and oh how she wanted if it wasn't for those ropes. They seemed to be chakra proved, she couldn't just break free.

"You've delayed us enough as it is, we really should go now, yeah." He said and turned around.

"You'll have to release me." Sakura said firmly. "I can't run with my hands bound."

Deidara stilled, he knew she was right, but it was too risky to let her run on her own. He turned around to face her again.

"Well then I guess you would just have to be carried, yeah." An annoyed expression began to show on his face, but he remained calm. But then the all too familiar smirk were back, he had an idea. I seconds he threw a small white figure to the ground. Sakura looked at it. The small figure looked like a bird of some kind.

Deidara made some hand signs and then suddenly a big white bird stood in front of them. Sakura's eyes widened and inwardly dropped her mouth. The figure was impressive, so detailed and smooth. Deidara saw the admiration in her eyes.

"Quite impressive, huh?" He chuckled.

Sakura immediately returned to reality, she had been staring so intensely at the bird that she had forgotten all the things around her.

"Yeah whatever" She mumbled, annoyed that she actually thought it was pretty amazing.

"Well that's your ride, yeah." He said.

Sakura stared at him and then on the bird and then back at him.

"No way! I'm not going to be flying anywhere." One of Sakura's biggest secrets was that she actually felt a bit anxious when she was above the ground, heights made her uncomfortable. No one knew this, except for 

Naruto, who once had brought her to his favorite place, a little spot just on top of the 4th Hokage stone face back home in Konoha. He loved to be there, he watched the whole village and he said that a good Hokage was supposed to be keeping an eye on the village. From there he was able to see if anyone approached the village. But Sakura was just all pale and when Naruto asked her what was wrong, she admitted her secret to him.

"Well I'm in charge here and I say, go sit on the fucking bird." Deidara demanded.

"No, I won't do it." She said bluntly keeping herself calm.

"Would it help if I said I won't blow up the bird?" He then asked.

Sakura just stared at him. She was not going to fly anywhere that was for sure, that would be over her dead body.

"Never in my god damned life!" She said raising her voice.

But suddenly she felt him standing right behind her, holding an arm around her. They were close enough for their bodies to touch. Sakura panicked.

"Get away from me, shithead!" She squeaked trying wriggle away from his grip.

"Tobi you go on and run ahead. You know the way. I'll catch up in a minute, yeah." Deidara said to Tobi.

"Yes sir!" Tobi obeyed, and jumped in to a tree and was gone in a second.

He jumped up on the bird with her in his arms. Sakura struggled hard to get out of his grip, but without results, if she wasn't able to hit him with her hands she had to try with her feet. She focused her chakra to her right foot and lashed out at him with all force she could manage, but Deidara had already foreseen her attack and grabbed her ankle. Now Sakura really panicked, she stood on only one foot, while the other was in Deidara's hand, but to Sakura's relief did no longer hold his arms around her, because of her attack. But this position still was a bit awkward. With her hands bound, it was ten times as hard to keep her balance, but still she was a jounin now, and she had learned a lot more, so she managed to stay standing on her foot.

Deidara tightened his grip on her and slowly twisted her foot in a painfully way. Sakura clenched her jaw and held a scream of pain within her. _'Never let your enemy knows his hurting you.'_ Sakura thought, this was one of the ninja rules. Deidara twisted her foot a bit more, and then Sakura's left leg gave in, she fell hard on her back. Before she got up she saw Deidara jump off the bird, and then she felt a sudden rush in her abdomen, the bird was on its way up in the air. Somehow in her panic she was able to get her bound hands in front of her, instead of behind her back.

'_No no no! This is not good.'_ Sakura thought and grabbed the birds neck and tried not to look down. _'Okay Sakura calm down, think of something nice. Umm sitting at Ichiraku's with Naruto and having ramen, yeah that's nice.'_ Sakura managed to calm down a little, but then the bird jerked upwards, and Sakura was brought back to reality.



"Put me down stupid bird" She said and kicked it, but then her hands slipped a bit and she threw herself down to the bird's neck and cling to it. The bird didn't react to her punch, but flew steadily forward. Sakura tried to focus on something else than the height. She closed her eyes and listened to the rhythmic flapping from the bird's wings. She lay completely still there and counted every single flap.

An hour or two passed and then the bird jerked downwards. Sakura let out a small scream, when Sakura had the ground in sight and the bird just continued its high speed, she thought this was the end of her life. She closed her eyes and waited for the ground to come smashing in her face. But it didn't.

The bird slowly slowed down and the she felt a 'bump'. She opened her eyes and saw that the bird had landed. She immediately jumped of the bird and began running away from it, but then someone grabbed her arm, she turned around and saw the orange mask.

"You're not supposed to go anywhere." Tobi said almost desperately.

Sakura looked at him as if he just had grown another head. _'Well I'll decide if I want to go or not' _She wanted to say, but chose not to. She was their captive after all, but to hell with that, if she could get away, she would take the first opportunity given. _'I mean what the hell did you expect, stupid!'_ inner Sakura rolled eyes. At this point of her captivity she had realized that Tobi wasn't exactly the sharpest tool in the shed, and it didn't help much that he was looking kind of dumb, with that weird mask on.

But before Sakura could answer Tobi, a kunai flew past both of their heads, Sakura only just managed to dodge it. _'What the hell was that?'_ inner Sakura gulped. They both saw turned their heads and saw their attacker. He was tall and dark, and looked mostly like someone from a horror movie. Sakura guessed he was a rouge ninja. Since his hatai-ate was scratched out. Then another jumped down, from a tree, by his side, this one was a little smaller and had long brown hair put up in a low ponytail, but looked just as terrifying as his partner.

Sakura sighed. This was going to be the worst day ever. The dark rouge ninja launched at them, throwing several kunais at them. They both dodged them by throwing themselves out of the path of the kunais, Sakura to the opposite way of Tobi.

"Get these ropes of me now!" She hissed.

"Uh, Tobi doesn't think..." Tobi was cut off by a very intimidating Sakura.

"Now!" She growled angry eyes staring holes in Tobi's mask.

Tobi gulped and helped her free from the ropes.

Sakura immediately took a defensive stand. She had no other choice but to fight them, she was surrounded with enemies, Akatsuki on one side, and rouge ninjas on the other side. She would have to choose a side, because she wouldn't be able to fight both of them at the same time. Obviously the rouge ninjas had no intention of bringing her on their side, as she was their target, and the Akatsuki only wanted to make a slave of some sort out of her.

'_Survival of the fittest' _she remembered from the academy. She had to choose the fittest, even though she knew nothing of the rouge ninja, she knew that the Akatsuki was a group of the most dangerous shinobi in the world, and they were probably a lot stronger than these lowlife rouge shinobis.

She chose Akatsuki.

She didn't trust them, but she figured they had kept her alive for some reason, and they weren't about to attack her now in this situation.

Her inner discussion was abruptly interrupted by the brown-haired rouge ninja, who had thrown some poisoned senbons in her direction. The attack was only to distract her, in a second the rouge ninja was gone. All senses alerted Sakura, she was quite aware of his disappearing, but she had to avoid being cut by any of those dangerous senbons she didn't know what kind of poison he used, and therefore she wouldn't stand a chance to find an antidote for it. Well that wasn't all true, she could find an antidote, but it would take too long to make a proper one. She had done it once before, she had saved the life of the Kazekage's older brother Kankuro. But now was not the time to think about that, now was the time to counter the attack.

Sakura sensed the presence of someone behind her she knew this was the rouge ninja. She twirled around and kicked him in his stomach. The rouge ninja flew across the ground hitting in to a tree, which made a threatening cracking sound.

"Ah, you know how to land a good kick I see." The brown-haired shinobi smirked.

"Just get the fuck out of here and I won't kill you." She growled back at him.

"Uh, you are quite sure of yourself aren't you? What makes you think you can kill me that easily?" He grinned.

"Well, let' see. You're a pathetic loser that isn't too clever. You might want to take a look at who you attack next time. These are the Akatsuki! You guys won't stand a chance." She informed. But that didn't seem to surprise him at all. He just looked at her indifferently.

"So what if they are the Akatsuki, we're a lot more than you."

"Oh yeah I can see that." Sakura said sarcastically.

He chuckled. "Yeah they are not here. They are dealing with that other guy, and I say he's the one that got to be more careful if he doesn't want to die."

'_He just doesn't want to learn'_ she thought. "Yeah yeah, whatever. Can we stop talking and get on with the fight? If you still think it's a good idea." She said, while pumping chakra to both of her hands.

He just smirked taking his stands.

Then Sakura launched at him, lifting her right hand to throw a punch at him.

In an instant he ran towards her. He was rather fast she admitted, but that wouldn't protect him from her fury. When she was close enough she threw the punch, but he ducked and avoided being hit, and at the same time he lashed at her shins, to make her fall. But Sakura's alerted senses told her his next move, she grabbed his shoulders and jumped over him, and when she hit the ground she threw him to the ground, and pinned him down.

"You look kind of sexy from here." He smirked. His eyes roaming all over her body, which made Sakura want to rip his eyes out.

"Shut up, you worthless piece of shit!" She hissed.

"Ah, I like my girls feisty." He said.

Then they heard a loud bang coming from some place behind them. She punched him once hard in his face, knocking him unconscious. After making sure he wouldn't wake up any time soon, she moved to where she thought she had heard the bang. A cloud of dust was all she saw. But slowly as the dust fell to the earth again, she saw a figure standing in the middle, she couldn't quite see the person. Then she heard him.

"That's what you get when you try to mess with me, yeah!" She recognized the voice as Deidara's.

The she saw him, he had taken off his cloak and now stood there in his mesh shirt and dark blue pants. She had never seen him without his cloak on. The mesh shirt hung tight against his skin, she could almost see his tensed muscles, and she found him to be quite handsome, but also a bit younger than she had thought. Without the cloak he looked like he was only a boy, he was maybe only a few years older than her.

She scolded herself for admitting that her enemy were in fact handsome, that thought was not allowed, how could she think things like that, how could she even think of thinking it. She pushed the thought away, far away.

Then he looked over at her, staring right at her with his blue eyes. Emerald green met icy blue. They just stood there looking at each other for what seemed like hours to Sakura. This was strange to her, why would he be looking at her like that? But in this moment she never thought of looking away or yelling at him for staring like that. She didn't find his stare threatening nor was it soothing, but she kind of liked the way he looked at her. For a second she forgot who he was, where they were and what they were doing here. All that mattered in this second was his momentary look. Then Sakura noticed a man sneak up on him from behind him.

"Watch out!" she cried out.

Deidara had noticed the man, her cry was completely unnecessary, but he couldn't remember the last time anyone had warned him like that. She almost sounded like she cared. _'How _sweet' he thought before smirking and turning around to strike at his enemy.

Sakura turned around blushing heavily, why did she have to be so stupid? Of course he didn't need to be warned, and why did she anyway. He was her enemy, she should be happy if anyone attacked him. She decided that this had been a moment of weakness and that her warning definitely only was an act of her own stupidity.

Then another rouge ninja jumped down behind her from his hiding in the trees and grabbed her arms and pressed a kunai against her throat.

"Hello pretty lady." He whispered breathing hot air on the shell of her ear.

'_Damn it'_ She had been caught off guard. This was indeed the worst day ever. She had had enough something inside her exploded. She got her hand out of his grip. Then she grabbed his wrist with both hands and slung him over her body, and as far away from her as possible. He was knocked unconscious. She didn't like to kill, but of course she did when it was absolutely necessary.

Sakura looked to the left and saw the battle between Tobi and the dark rouge ninja. She saw them fight, Tobi had only kunais while the other had a katana, and she wondered what kind of specialty Tobi might have, he must be special of some kind, every Akatsuki were special in their own way. But as far as she could see the only thing special about Tobi was his mask, and why did he even have that on? There were a lot of questions in her head, in fact she had never known an Akatsuki member named Tobi, and he wasn't in any bingo books. Tobi was becoming a complete mystery to her.

The rouge ninja made a rotating move and disarmed Tobi and then the he kicked him to the ground.

"I'm going to finish you!" The rouge ninja growled.

Tobi whimpered.

He lifted his katana to take the final blow, but in the second he had swung his weapon at Tobi. The attack was stopped. The eyes of the rouge ninja widened, when he saw, who had stopped him. The blond Akatsuki member in front of him smirked, while a kunai pressed against his katana.

"Oh, no you don't." Deidara said plainly and smirked. "I am going to finish you."

Deidara kicked the dark rouge ninja away and threw something at him.

"Katsu!"

The rouge ninja exploded. The explosion came so sudden, and Sakura heart skipped a beat of pure surprise. She knew that Deidara used bombs of some sort, but it was overwhelming to actually watch.

Deidara turned around and looked at Tobi.

"How many times do I have to tell you? Keep your eyes on your enemy, you can't fight like that, yeah." He made a gesture at Tobi head.

"That mask is going to kill you someday Tobi." Deidara sighed. Not like he cared or anything. He just didn't want to become partnerless once again.

Sakura stood a few meters away looking at them, listening to Deidara. He had saved Tobi's life, and now he was saying he should take better care of himself. It sounded almost as if he cared. Sakura didn't believe that the Akatsuki members cared for anybody, but themselves. Maybe she was wrong after all. She couldn't help but smile at the thought of all Akatsuki members running around in a fluffy pink world making sure no 

one ever got hurt, simply because they cared. _'Yeah like that's ever gonna happen.'_ She thought and frowned.

A movement behind her caused her to quickly turn around, ready to hit anything that came too close to her. She seriously needed to stop letting her guard down around these people. But Deidara's just as fast reactions caught her wrist, but he hadn't seen the other hand coming from the other side. Sakura punched him hard in his face, causing him to slide a few meters backwards, but he didn't release Sakura's wrist, so she slid with him. To gain balance Deidara grab Sakura's waist and turning both of them, but his little trick didn't help much. Sakura fell on her back taking him down with her.

So there they were, the young kunoichi pressed down to the ground by the male shinobi on top of her, it took a moment for both of them to realize what kind of position they actually were in. Deidara hoisted himself a bit to look down at her. Sakura were in shock, all she could do was to gape, at the whole situation. How the hell did she end up lying beneath him? Then it happened. She felt her face becoming warm, she blushed furiously. _'No, no, no!'_

"Well this is kind of awkward." Deidara said with a nervous grin.

"Sempai… Are you okay?" Tobi shouted while running towards them. Deidara quickly got up and turned towards Tobi.

"Uh, yeah…" He winced and rubbed his hand to his jaw. '_Damn that hurts! '_She must have broken my jaw or something.

Sakura got up herself and brushed the dust off her clothes.

"We should be moving away from here, before other ninja's pick up the vibes from the fight." Deidara spoke, ignoring the shooting pain from his jaw. He turned to look at Sakura. "Can we trust you to not run anywhere? I will kill you personally if you do." Sakura couldn't get any words out of her mouth, still a little shocked by that little incident just a second ago.

"If you think you can escape easily, you're wrong! But I thought if you could run yourself, it would save us a lot of trouble, yeah." He said.

"Um, okay…" Was all she had to say. Well what could she say, they weren't going to bind her hands now, but that didn't mean she would have any chance to escape, they would keep a good eye on her. She was getting a bit more freedom, she was happy about it, but she was still their captive.

"Good, yeah." Deidara sighed. "Tobi you lead the way. You, kunoichi in the middle where I can see you, and I'll form the back."

"Alright sempai, Tobi will lead the way." Tobi said grinning.

Deidara sighed. _'Why did I have to put up with this idiot?'_

Tobi jumped on to the nearest branch and started jumping from branch to branch. Sakura stared at him for a second before following him, and finally Deidara jumped on to the branch. Before he followed the other two, he looked back at where the fighting had taken place. He saw some great big craters and smirked. _'I have changed this spot forever.'_ He turned back and followed his teammate and his captive.

* * *

**A/N:** So I hope you liked it.. If you didn't plese review and tell me what I did wrong or should do better.. Thank you!


	6. Right and wrong

**Behind enemy lines**

**Disclaimer: **I do not own Naruto. **  
**

**Summary: **Sakura, Naruto and Kakashi is going on a mission, something unexpected happens. They run in to the Akatsuki. They are unable to defeat them and the Akasuki takes Naruto and Sakura with them as captives. Rated M for later chapters. Pairing: Deidara x Sakura.

**A/N:** Sigh Yet again sorry for the waiting.. I know it took a while, but I have just been in Thailand and I couldn't really bring my computer, but I wrote notes down when I thought of something good.. The only reason why I haven't uploaded is because I haven't been home.. Anyways Hope you like this chapter.. :D

* * *

**Right and wrong**

Sakura felt him stare at her back. Actually he'd been looking at her the whole time, never taking his eyes of her. She didn't like it. She wanted to get the hell out of here. She wanted to be home in her bed save and away from all dangers. But all she could do now was follow the Akatsuki member in front of her. Well she could also just refuse to follow and fight them and be sure to die, but was she really ready to sacrifice herself? And for what exactly? What would she gain by fighting and dying? Nothing would change. The Akatsuki would still try to get the biiju out of Naruto. If she died now, who was going to save her best friend? No, she could not allow that to happen, if she had any hopes for Naruto she would have to stay alive. Besides she was actually travelling with Akatsuki members she might find out where they hid him. She was just going to live with this current situation.

Still this was the Akatsuki and to be honest she was a bit scared of them, but even if she was she could not let them know. She was trained to not show any kind of weakness in front of any enemy. That would give the enemy an advantage

They had been running for some time now, and she had no idea where they were or where they were heading, it was really bugging her, the only thing she was able to tell was that they were heading east or southeast maybe, because it was late and they were heading mostly in the opposite direction of the sun. She had noticed that they were zigzagging, this would definitely slow them down, but the chance of being caught by hunters or other ninja was also greatly decreased. Their way of travelling was quite strategic, but she wouldn't have expected anything else from the Akatsuki.

The Akatsuki in front of her turned his masked face towards her, he looked at her through the only opening in that mysterious mask, she couldn't see his eye because of the distance between them, but she was absolutely sure he was staring at her. She wanted to scream at him and tell him to fucking look where he was going instead, but the minute her brows creased, his head switched to look at the Akatsuki behind her. Without any words they apparently had decided to call it a day. Tobi jumped from the tree to the ground, she followed happily. Finally they stopped. Her legs ached they had been running almost the whole day.

She breathed a sigh of relief when she finally sat down with her back against a tree. But her moment of peace was only short. The blond Akatsuki approached her as he got to the ground. She could see his jaw was quite a bit swollen and blue this must have been her work, from earlier that day when she had hit him. It looked bad, served him right. When taking her captive there were bound to be consequences. She rose to her feet so she would be ready to counter attack if that was what he was thinking of. But when he was close enough he stopped. Sakura stared at him her gaze lowered and saw he was holding some rope. She quickly put two and two together. He was going to bind her for the rest of the night to make sure she wouldn't run away.

"Do you have any idea of how uncomfortable it is to sleep when you are all bound and unable to move?" she asked sharply.



"Nope… Never tried it, yeah" He grinned.

She stared at him skeptically.

"What?" he frowned and stared back.

"Nothing, just bind me already I really need to sleep." She snarled. She really didn't feel like waking up and being unable to feel her own limps because of the reduced blood circulation that the ropes would cause. It really annoyed her.

He looked at her for a second. "Yeah, yeah…" he murmured.

She sat down again and waited for him to bind her. Deidara sighed and squatted down and bound her to the tree. He bound her loosely, but still tight enough that she couldn't go anywhere. Sakura was glad that he hadn't bound her legs, but this was still not very comfortable, but neither was sleeping on the rock hard ground.

Deidara went to his masked partner: "I'll keep watch the first few hours. You go to sleep we'll need our strength tomorrow." Tobi nodded and went to find a good sleeping spot. Sakura wondered what he was talking about, what exactly did they need their strength for? What would tomorrow bring? She stared suspiciously at Deidara, but he didn't seem to notice. He just sat down with his back against a tree just across her. Sakura closed her eyes and leaned the back of her head against the tree. She just wanted to sleep. She ignored the fact that she was captured, she wanted to forget all of it. Instead she saw all of her friends in Konoha in front of her, and memorized her new mission that she had given herself: "Save Naruto no matter what happens!"

Even in this uncomfortable state she fell asleep in no time.

Deidara looked at his partner. Sometimes he didn't quite know who he was dealing with. He was a weird kid that was for sure, but how did he ever end up in the Akatsuki? A kid, who always referred himself to be a good boy, he never cared to ask but sometimes it was a complete mystery to him. It just told Deidara how little he knew about his partner. He had only known Tobi since he became Zetzu's little pet. In the Akatsuki you'd never asked each other about their pasts, that was a rather large taboo. Still Deidara had heard from other places about all the other Akatsuki members for example everyone knew Itachi's story. But no one seemed to know about Tobi or his story, well maybe the leader. Deidara blinked, why was he even thinking about it? Like he cared, it was not like they were friends or anything.

He shifted to look at the sleeping kunoichi instead. He watched her for moment and smirked to himself. She was actually rather attractive. Her pink strands flowing down beside her creamy skin. She had very light skin, but it matched perfectly to her pink hair. She looked so feminine. He wondered how a girl like that would end up being a shinobi, a dirty and very unfeminine job. He had seen a certain strength in her eyes. He remembered those big emerald green eyes, they stood out from the rest of her appearance, when her eyes were closed that strength was momentarily gone, sleeping maybe, but never too far away, lurking just beneath the surface ready to pop out and explode. Now he thought about it, she was kind of artistic.

-oOo-



She stands in the middle of a small quadratic room. She cannot see anything it is way too dark in here, she lifts her hands in front of her, but she sees nothing. Slowly panicking she grabs her stomach and legs to see if they are still there. She realizes that nothing is missing, and calms down, and instead focuses on where the hell she is. She can't see anything in this darkness instead she concentrates on sounds, but she hears nothing, and there is no unusual smell either. Maybe those two Akatsuki bastards have brought her to this room. Maybe this is where they will keep her. Maybe this is a prison cell.

Suddenly she hears something. The voice is small and thin. She cannot hear what the voice is saying, but slowly the voice becomes stronger and louder. Now she can hear the voice is repeating the same sentence over and over, but precisely what it is saying is still a bit clouded. But as time passes she starts to recognize something. It's almost as if it's saying _'Sakura'._

Then all of a sudden the whole sentence becomes clear to her.

"Please. Sakura. Help me!"

Her eyes widen when she recognizes Naruto's voice.

'_It's Naruto! I have to help him, he's in trouble!' _She runs and hits a wall. _'Damn this room. I have to find the door.' _With one hand on the wall and the other in front of her, she begins walk. She reaches the corner between two walls. _'No door in the first wall'_. Naruto's voice becomes louder and louder every second, _'Another corner.'_ Sakura become even more desperate to find the door, _'A Corner again. The door must be here' _she walks faster and faster, only to find another corner. _'No door?!' _She starts running. She meets corner after corner._ 'Is this a doorless room?!'_ Naruto's voice screaming in her ears. _'Hold on Naruto! I'm coming!' _Another voice appears. _'Kakashi-sensei!' _She recognizes the voice immediately. He's also calling for her.

"Hold on I'm coming!" She screams. Frustrated tears run down her cheek.

Suddenly the voices stop. _'Am I too late?' _Before she comes to realize anything she bumps in to something, and falls to the ground. She opens her eyes, not remembering she ever closed them. The first thing she sees is a crack of light. _'The door!' _The second thing she sees is that there is someone in front of it. Third thing, the person is holding out a hand to help her. She grabs the hand in wonder. _'Who is this?' _

-oOo-

Her eyes shot open. It was still dark. It was just a dream. Just a nightmare. Her heart was pounding at an abnormal speed, and she was sweating, but she was cold as hell. All of a sudden she had this urge to just throw up, but she held it down. She didn't want to have vomit all over her only clothes. She felt terrible to put it lightly.

"You were all twisting and turning. Are you alright?" A voice asked.

"What?" She said drowsily and lifted her head to see who was talking. That mysterious masked boy sat right in front of her.

"Are you okay?" He repeated.



"Actually I could feel a whole lot better if you'd untied me." She pouted. But to her surprise he actually did start to release her from the ropes. She just stared at him for a while, as if she would be able to figure him out if she just stared long enough.

Finally the ropes fell loosely down her sides. She breathed a short sigh of relief and rubbed her arms. She looked at him.

"Thank you." She murmured.

Tobi's head fell a bit to one side. "Ah, that was nothing. Tobi is a good boy, are you okay now?" He asked cheerfully. You could almost imagine him smiling underneath the mask, as he spoke.

She smiled. "Yeah I'm fine." But her stomach seemed to disagree and made a small rumble. She immediately held her arms around her stomach to make it stop rumbling. She was actually very hungry. She hadn't eaten since she left Konoha.

"Tobi is hungry too. Tobi has some food in his bag." Out of nowhere he pulled a bag towards her. "The food is cold, but it is really good, especially the rice balls." He said with the same cheerful voice.

Was he always like that? She stared incredulously at him, while he dug down in the bag to find those rice balls. She couldn't help but smile at how he acted. He seemed like an innocent little boy. How in the world did he end up in an organization like the Akatsuki? He didn't seem like those ordinary criminals she was used to. No he actually seemed nice.

"Here…" He held out a plastic bag. She took the bag, when she opened it a delicious smell poured out. She grabbed a rice ball and gave the bag to Tobi. She looked at the rice ball for a second, could she be sure they hadn't poisoned them. She looked at Tobi again. He had that mask on, and he was probably just as secretive about his face as Kakashi was. She doubted he would take the mask of to eat. She sniffed at the rice ball, but she didn't catch any scent of the poisons she was familiar with. Still there were a lot of different poisons, and all different from country to country she didn't know every poison existing in the world, but she knew a big part of them and was quite proud of her knowledge.

Her stomach rumbled again. She decided to distrust her instincts, because she was really hungry. She took a small bite, and was utterly surprised. This was absolutely just delicious. The flavor sent her flying through the world of deliciousness. She quickly ate the whole rice ball, and as if Tobi had read her mind he held out the bag again.

"Great, huh?" He asked.

"Yeah this is really delicious."She said. Then something came to her mind. Who makes these? She imagined the whole Akatsuki in the kitchen with pink aprons on and everyone being very busy with cooking a delicious meal. She nearly spat out her rice ball out of pure laughter when that thought came to her mind.

"Who makes these?" She then asked after finishing her rice ball.

"These are some Deidara bought by a man we met earlier, he was nice. He practically gave them to us for free." Tobi said.



"Oh…" She was a bit disappointed that these weren't Akatsuki homemade.

They were both quiet for a while as they ate. Then Sakura frowned.

"Why are you so nice to me?" She then asked.

"Tobi is always nice to his friends." He grinned as if that was the most obvious thing in the world. Sakura's eyes widen, she looked at him.

"What? No, Tobi we're enemies. We are supposed to hate each other and – Kill one another if the chance comes." She tried to explain.

"Then I hope the chance never comes. Tobi doesn't want to kill a friend." He just didn't want to understand.

"I'm not your friend Tobi. Friends does capture you and bind you to a tree and…"

"…Share a delicious meal?" He finished.

He was right on that. She shouldn't let her guard down, not even around him. She did like him, he was nice. There was no way around that statement. Tobi was a nice boy. But that fact actually scared her, if he was so nice then why did he join the Akatsuki? They aren't exactly known as a kind and generous organization.

"We can't be friends. You are a member of an organization, whose goal is to kill my best friend." She said troubled.

"Tobi doesn't want to kill his friend's friend, but he has to do what Deidara-sempai and Leader-sama says." He explained.

"No, Tobi. You don't have to do anything you don't want to, no one does." _'Except me, I'm only still here because of Naruto.'_ She though. She hoped she would be able to figure out where they kept Naruto, or what exactly their plans with the biijus were.

"Tobi has to, he made a promise." He said.

"What kind of promise is it?" She asked curious.

"He promised Leader-sama that he would help him build the new world."

"Wait. What? What new world?" Tobi was definitely not the sharpest tool in the shed, he was sitting there and spilling the organizations plans. Wauw, she had definitely gotten lucky with this one.

"A world without crime and violence, a world without evil!" Tobi said happily.

That wasn't quite what she would have expected of the Akatsuki, and that was to put it lightly. She was astounded, very astounded. The only word coming to her mind was _'Whaat?!'_ she didn't say anything she just stared at him in surprise. It didn't add up at all. Why would they want to create a world like that, the most deadly and dangerous organization was trying to attain worldly peace. She just couldn't believe it, even though she wanted to believe it. She wanted to believe that there was something good underneath all 

that cruelty. A world in peace, now that sounded fairly nice. It all seemed ironic somehow. She was fighting them, they were fighting her, but they were all just headed towards the same goal. She didn't dare to believe it.

"Isn't it great? A would without killing." Tobi said cheerful braking her train of thoughts.

"Yeah it's really great." She nodded quietly not completely back from that fantasy.

"But Deidara-sempai and the others still don't know Leader-sama's great plans. So don't tell him, Tobi promised Leader-sama he wouldn't tell anyone. Tobi don't know why they aren't supposed to know, but he promised." He turned his head and looked at his sleeping partner.

"It's okay I won't tell anyone." She lied with a smile on her lip. "But what is he going to use the biijus for then?" She would try to get more information from him.

Tobi turned his head back at her and after a while he spoke.

"He's going to destroy all evil-minded and shinobi."

He said it like shinobis were made out of evil and deserved to die a slow and painful death. That scared her. She never had the feeling she needed to be afraid of Tobi. But now she wished she was a thousand miles away.

"Peace and shinobi are two different concepts. They can't co-exist." He said.

Well he was right. Shinobi were there to secure the safety of the villagers, but if there was peace. Then the villagers wouldn't need shinobis to protect them. She didn't exactly always love being a shinobi at all times, but it had become her life, she had met everyone because she became a shinobi. She had been in love with a shinobi, she had been heartbroken as a shinobi, and she had felt angry and happy as a shinobi. She couldn't – wouldn't give up that life. Now she wasn't sure if she wanted world peace anymore. She was selfish but she needed to think of herself sometimes too. That was her only and very pathetic excuse for not wanting world peace. She wanted to selfish.

She didn't want to talk anymore tonight. This talk had made her think too much about abstract things that likely weren't going to happen. She looked away and tried to look tired, by yawning.

"Well I'm tired, I'm just going to sleep the rest of the night." She lied.

"Okay goodnight then." He got up and went back to 'his' tree.

"Yeah… thanks" She mumbled and turned to face away from him and instead to face a sleeping Deidara. That bruise on his jaw seemed to hurt quite a bit. He even grimaced from pain in his sleep. If he didn't see doctor soon it would definitely going to be harder to heal and more painful. Maybe she should heal it? She was the only medic in the near. _'He's an enemy, remember?' _She reminded herself. _'But he actually looks rather cute when he's sleeping.'_ She smiled, but quickly stopped and scolded herself for being so superficial. _'He's an enemy, he just doesn't look cute at anytime!'_ She sighed and closed her eyes she had enough problems and she sure didn't want more of those.



She wanted to sleep but this new information she had gained popped up in her mind every time she closed her eyes. She couldn't stop thinking about it. Did the Akatsuki really want world peace or was it just something their leader had told Tobi to make him join the organization or to be enthusiastic about it. It just didn't seem right. Why couldn't the other members know about it? Was Tobi something special? She had dozens of other questions that she wanted an answer for.

She didn't get much sleep the rest of the night. She was half asleep and half awake, she could hear what was going on around her, but at the same time her mind formed pictures in front of her eyes, like she was dreaming.

-oOo-

Finally a sharp light forced her to open her eyes. It was morning.

"Why'd you untie her?!" Deidara demanded.

"The ropes hurt her. Tobi was only trying to help." Tobi said quietly.

"Yeah? Well don't! You can't just help your enemy like that, she could have run away!"

"No, no, Tobi never let her out of his eyesight, he was watching her." Tobi said a bit louder this time.

Deidara sighed. "Well you're lucky she didn't run away, or I would have ripped your head off." He spat out. "Why couldn't I have gotten another partner?" He sighed to himself.

"Tobi is sorry. He didn't mean to make you mad Deidara-sempai." Tobi apologized.

Deidara only growled as response, he was obviously not in a very good mood. "Well just wake her up and let's go. We need to get going if we have a wish of ever completing this mission. We need to hurry back to the base and drop her off first." He said annoyed.

When Sakura stood to face her captivators she could see why he was in such bad mood. The bruise on Deidara's face had grown bigger. She could almost feel the pain just by looking at the bruise. She needed to do something. Enemy or not, nobody didn't deserve that, and it was kind of ruining the handsome face. She felt bad, this was her work, well he did deserve the punch but he would surely look better without that ugly bruise. She started walking towards him. He certainly didn't look pleased to see her, she didn't see it. She had already switched to her medic mode. As a medic she had sworn to heal and take care of the wounded and that was just what she intended to do.

Deidara went two steps back when she was about to touch him. "What are you doing?" He asked cautionary.

"Well you can't go around and look like that forever, can you?" she pointed at the bruise. He only grunted in response.

"I'm guessing it hurts pretty much." She said studying him with her eyes. She stepped forward again, but Deidara still backed away. "Look I'm a medic okay. I can heal it."



"Why?" He asked.

"Just let me heal it, okay? As a medic I have sworn to heal the wounded." This was her only excuse to heal him, if she had been a saner shinobi, she would have let him feel the pain and let him suffer, but she just didn't have the heart to do so. "Besides we are miles away from a doctor, as far as I know at least. If you don't get that fixed it's never going to heal properly and maybe you would have to look like that for the rest of your life. So if you don't have any intention on becoming the next ugly beast I suggest you let me have a look at it." He looked suspiciously at her.

"Let her do it sempai." Tobi said silently. "She's not going to kill you or anything. Tobi can tell." Deidara turned his head towards Tobi and gave him a I-know-better-so-shut-up stare. With a final glance at her, he nodded making it clear to Sakura that she had permission to heal him.

Sakura lifted her right hand to the bruise. She focused her chakra to the palm of her hand, and a green bluish light appeared between her hand and his face. When the healing chakra connected with Deidara's skin, he couldn't restrain a small sigh of relief. The burning pain that had been going on for what seemed like an eternity was slowly disappearing. The chakra was a bit chilly and tinkling, but so very soothing. He could almost feel the way the fractured bone in his jaw moved back to where it belonged, it surprised him to feel it didn't hurt, not even a little bit. But the soothing feeling on his jaw was abruptly cut off when her hand dropped and she was finished. It wasn't completely healed, but it was enough for the time being, and Sakura didn't want to use any more chakra than necessary on him. She wanted to save as much chakra as she could.

Deidara opened his eyes wondering why he had shut them. When he looked at her he saw something strange radiating from her eyes, a feeling that he had never really understood. Then he suddenly felt as if someone strangled him, he couldn't breathe right. Although he tried to keep from showing any physical change, all his senses had awoken to be at full alert. Had she poisoned him? His heart was pounding. What had she done to him? His breathing became more rapid, and he felt extremely hot. He felt almost feverish. Now he noticed how close she was. He couldn't stand it much longer. He looked down and saw that she hadn't moved her hand completely. She was faintly touching his hand. He had to get away from this proximity.

Deidara roughly pushed Sakura aside and turned to walked away from her. Her eyes followed him. She had noticed that he was getting very uncomfortable all of a sudden, but she had also felt his chakra, and it had felt thrilled or excited in some way. It had been leaking out of his body as if he couldn't contain all of it.

"Are you okay sempai?" Tobi asked. He had also seen the strange behavior. Sakura watched as the boy closed in on his partner. Deidara waved at him, as to leave him alone.

"I'm fine, yeah."

Tobi looked at Sakura. "What did you do?" he asked, Sakura traced an intimidating voice in his question.

"Nothing I swear!" To be honest she had felt something too, she didn't know what it was, but there had definitely been something there between them, though she hadn't felt sick or whatever Deidara had felt. She had felt a warm sensation deep inside of her stomach, to her it had felt good. She had wanted more of 

that warm feeling, but some part of her had known that something was wrong. At that time she had just ignored it, but now she couldn't ignore it anymore. The sensation she had felt was wrong, that was all she knew right now.

"We'll move now." There were no trace of uneasiness in Deidara's voice when he spoke, it was completely gone. Sakura decided to let whatever had happened go. She didn't want to think about it. She had to stay focused and save her friend.

-oOo-

A half day past before they arrived at their destination, but about one kilometer away they blindfolded Sakura. Apparently they were taking her to one of their bases. The rest of the way was only black to her. She heard a lot of noises around her, but nothing made any sense when she couldn't see anything.

When they finally removed the blindfold she was in a room. It was very simple. One bed, one table, two chairs and a reasonable amount of floor. Nothing more. Not even a window. Sakura sighed at the look of her room. Then someone pushed her into her room, she cursed as she landed face first on the floor. She turned around and saw a glimpse of blond and black before the door roughly closed and a small clicking noise made it obvious that the door was locked. She got up and looked around.

This room was indeed very empty. Not even a simple book was in here, what the hell did they think she was supposed to do? Just sit in this room all day looking at the peeling wall? She sat down on one of the chairs and wondered what she should do now. She had to think of something, but before she got to think much more someone burst the door open. She looked up and saw a familiar blue shark like person.

"Hello little miss cherry blossom." He greeted in a very disturbing way. For a moment it seem like he was going to bow and kiss her feet or something.

"Well isn't it the fish guy." She sighed. The smirk on the man's face quickly turned in to a frown. "What do you want? I haven't got all day! I have so much to do in this empty room, for example read all these invisible books here." She uttered sarcastically.

"Well aren't you the funny one." He grunted. "I don't think you'll get the time to do so. I'm guessing you're too tired to read," she looked questioning at him. She wasn't tired at all. In fact she was ready to run a marathon if someone asked her to. He moved quickly, and soon he was behind her whispering in her ear. "because I'm here to steal your chakra." He chuckled.

First she felt a cut on her hand, and then as if life itself was being sucked out of her. She gasped as the chakra slowly left her body and just before she thought there was nothing left in her body he stopped. She felt him behind her and she wanted to hit him, but she just didn't have the strength to do so. She could only wait and see what would come next. She heard him chuckle once more. "Goodnight cherry blossom." She let herself fall forward and down on the floor. She gasped again. The dark came creeping in to her eyesight. Her eyelids suddenly went incredibly heavy, and before she knew it she was asleep.

The shark like man stood up and looked at the small body on the floor and smirked, it was a very disturbing and scary smirk. "That's for breaking my shoulder little girl." Then he went out of the door leaving the kunoichi by herself helplessly on the floor.

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**A/N: **Hoped you liked it even if it took a while for me to upload it..


	7. Sharingan

**Behind Enemy Lines**

**Disclaimer: **I do not own Naruto. **  
**

**Summary: **Sakura, Naruto and Kakashi is going on a mission, something unexpected happens. They run in to the Akatsuki. They are unable to defeat them and the Akasuki takes Naruto and Sakura with them as captives. Rated M for later chapters. Pairing: Deidara x Sakura.

**A/N: **I Deeply apologies for the VERY late update. Sorry DONT HIT ME!! V.V

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He looked out of the window, the sun gently caressing the masked features. He wondered if he was meant to always lose everything he treasured, every time he seemed to finally have found something worth sticking around for, he had lost it. And he had not been able to protect it. He was sick and tired of it. He had always tried to keep up this cool and tough façade, when he really was hurting deep down.

He clenched his fist and hammered it in to the window frame hard enough to break it. But it didn't. It didn't break. It didn't even crack one bit. He turned his head to look at his hand.

"Weak" he mumbled. "I was too weak…"

He tilted his head downwards. Now it was all over. It was too late to do anything. The great copy-ninja had failed once again. He clenched his jaw. Did it really have to be this way? Would Naruto ever give up? No, he kept trying until he either succeeded or died. That was just how Naruto was. But the truth was, he wasn't Naruto, not even like him. Naruto was one of a kind.

But even if he wasn't like Naruto, he could damn sure start acting as if he was. Naruto had the guts to stand up and fight for what he believed in, but he himself was pathetic he was just sitting around waiting for the world to come to an end. He was a terrible sensei, he was afraid to go back to Konoha and tell them what happened, tell them that he had let the Akatsuki take Naruto. To tell them that Sakura was as good as dead, if not dead already. To tell them that he couldn't do anything to stop it from happening. He was afraid to go back and tell them that he had failed.

"No…" he said quietly. "No!" this time louder with more authority in his voice. "I can't let that happen. I have to do everything I can. I can't let them take them."

He grabbed his torn shirt and put it on while he turned around and walk out of what had been his room for the last 4 days. The corridor was dark and deserted only a few lights were on. He walked determined through the corridors passing several wondering eyes.

"Excuse me… Sir you can't go now, you haven't fully recovered… Sir… Sir!" A nurse call behind him, but before anyone could stop him he was out of the door and gone in a second.

-oOo-

She woke up two days later feeling sore in every single part of her body and incredible exhausted. She had never felt so tired before. Only with the strength of her will did she manage to crawl up in to the bed placed a few meters away, though it was a huge struggle to her. She had no idea what time it was because of the lacking window, and she wasn't aware of how long she had slept on the cold floor, but to be honest she didn't really care about that right now. The only thing she was sure of was that the bed was nice and warm, and that suited her perfectly.

She had never had her chakra sucked out of her, but she could imagine that it would be hard on the human body, though she hadn't imagined that she would be this tired and helpless. But it did make perfect sense, chakra is the source of energy that give humans their strength, and if nearly all chakra was gone it was only logical to assume that this would be the result.

Even though her mind wanted her to get up she just didn't want to bother. She turned around in the bed and threw away all of her thoughts, she really needed more sleep, and as soon as her eyes closed, she fell asleep.

But only a few hours later her stomach strongly protested. Her brows furrowed she felt like she had just closed her eyes, but true she was indeed very hungry. Once again her stomach rumbled.

"Okay, okay I'm up!" she mumbled tiredly into her pillow. She slowly sat up in her bed, and looked sleepily around. Much to her surprise she wasn't alone in the room.

He sat in the corner furthest away from the bed, and stared at her with his crimson eyes. Sakura frowned, how long had he been sitting in her room looking at her? And what was it he wanted from her? Was he really serious about her healing his eyes? She didn't believe Itachi to be that reckless, after all his eyes were his most deadly weapon, maybe because of that he would be willing to trust someone like her, just to get his weapon back, and what was wrong with his eyes anyways? She couldn't understand. She just stared suspicious at him.

He only stared back, like he expected her to say something first. As if he didn't need to explain why the hell he was in her room? Then he stood up, walking slowly towards her. She didn't like it and moved further back on the bed until she hit the wall. She sat up on her knees ready to fight back if he came to close. Itachi only moved closer, not making a notice of her shifted position.

She felt his eyes piecing through her, even if there apparently was something wrong with his eyes he hadn't lost the ability to make his enemy feel small and useless. She feared those eyes, eyes she had seen before, eyes that reminded her too much of the man she once loved, eyes so powerful and yet so fragile. She winced backwards.

He was very close now. He stopped when he reached the edge of the bed. Still quiet, saying nothing, only staring at her. She felt like she had to say something, but she couldn't, it was like there was a knot in her throat that prevented her from speaking. She was terrified. So this was the power of the Sharingan?

Her stomach rumbled once again and she felt a warm feeling creeping to her face, making her blush. She cursed herself. Hunger was a sign of weakness. Blushing was a sign of weakness. How could she let that happen in the presence of an enemy. Itachi didn't move, and for a moment the world was suddenly not so important to Sakura, she just wished he would go away. He then turned his head towards the table, this made Sakura look in the same direction. On the Table there was a plate with some rice and a piece of bread on, and beside the plate was a cup filled with water. All of a sudden Itachi was gone and everything returned to Sakura, the moment where Itachi was in her room had made the time pass slowly, as if the time had stopped.

She looked at the plate again and the hunger she felt, made her walk to the table and eat the rice and bread. This wasn't a big feast or anything, but it was more than what she had expected. She drank the cup of water and suddenly felt hoe thirsty she really was. Her throat was dry, and with every drop of water she felt how her strength came back to her. When she finished drinking she was still thirsty, but for now she had regain enough strength to stand up and walk. She went to the door, and tried to open it, but as she expected it was locked and not a possible escape way.

She couldn't feel any chakra reducing power over the room. So maybe she could just break down the door, with her power. She felt how her chakra rushed to her right hand, and then her hand started glowing blue with chakra. She stepped away from the door, while thinking of what she should do if she ran in to one of the Akatsuki. There was no other solution than to fight her way through. Though she wished she could save her strength for, when she would be looking for Naruto. She then launched at the door. With a loud cracking voice she had managed to break it down. She cheered at herself, but at the same time she was suspicious as to why it would be so easy.

She had no time to think and wonder. She had to get away from here. She sealed her chakra and ran down the corridor. She had no clue where she was running or where she was running to. There were absolutely no windows anywhere and no doors either, just a long corridor. Occasionally the corridor made a left or a right. She began to wonder why there weren't any doors or windows in this house, it seemed very odd to her. But she didn't think much of it, she just continued running. As time passed a certain fear crawled up, what if this wasn't real? What if she was trapped inside an illusion? That would explain why she hadn't run in to any Akatsuki that would explain why there were no doors or windows. When she realized this she stopped running. How long had she been trapped in this illusion? When did he do this?

The surrounding walls suddenly started moving closer, and she was now certain this was an illusion. She didn't like it, she remembered what happened to Kakashi when he'd been trapped in Itachi's illusion, when the Akatsuki for the first time went in to Konoha. Kakashi, Asuma and Kurenai had fought Kisame and Itachi. Itachi had trapped Kakashi in an illusion, and it had taken Kakashi a week to recover from that meeting.

The walls surrounded her quickly and they came closer and just when she thought they would squeeze her to death, they walls stopped getting closer. Sakura had trouble breathing. She felt all her insides where being pushed together and felt her lungs would burst with every breath. Hours passed, and when she couldn't stand this torture anymore she screamed.

Slowly the real world came back to her, she was almost happy to see the walls of her room, she was being held capture in. She breathed a sigh of relief, but the peace wouldn't last long. In front of her stood Itachi, he held her wrists tightly. Her eyes slowly moved from the room around her to the crimson eyes she feared. She then realized she hadn't moved from where she stood right before she launched at the door.

Those eyes burned in to hers, she couldn't find any words to say. She almost wished those eyes would be replaced with a pair of blue ones. That would be less frightening, but no these crimson eyes, who killed an entire clan, these eyes were the ones she was facing.

"Where are you going?" He asked carelessly.

"I… I was just…" She stuttered, but couldn't say anything.

He then loosened his grip on her. Her hands fell to her sides. She was terrified, but couldn't look away from his gaze, a moment passed. Then Itachi turned around and walked out of the door.

Sakura all of a sudden felt very weak, she sat down on the chair, thinking of how an amazing power the Sharingan was. Not only amazingly strong, also a very frightening power. Not one to be taken lightly. She hadn't noticed until now, but she was shaking and it wouldn't stop. _'I can't let him stop me'_ she thought. _'I need to figure out how to avoid his power or how to see through it. Even though that's not likely going to happen.'_

"I won't let him do this again, I can't let him make me feel this weak again" she whispered to herself. "Those eyes..." She frowned.

-oOo-

Those eyes could make him so mad. Just one look from them could make him go crazy. He would avoid being in the same room as them, but that wasn't always a possibility. His hatred only grew bigger when he heard the voice of the person those eyes belonged to. He just couldn't stand it. When that voice would talk to him with those eyes burning in to his skin, he was only barely able to keep his fury for this person inside him. Thinking of the last time they spoke made him clench his fists.

"He thinks he owns the whole world, yeah. That idiot!" He raged.

Tobi stood at his side and looked at him. He didn't dare to speak he could see Deidara was really mad. He thought that it would be best to stay still, and not say a word, or Deidara might take his rage out on him.

"How can he be so emotionless, how can he be so careless about anything I say to him. I swear I'm going to kill Itachi someday. You hear that Tobi, I'll kill that bastard." He breathed rapidly.

Tobi nodded.

When Deidara finally calm down, he kicked a small rock and watched it fly a few meters.

"We should continue, yeah." Deidara then said in a low voice.

The wind was getting stronger, and drier. They both knew that meant the wind country wasn't far away. They increased their speed. "Let's get this mission done" Deidara said.

-oOo-

Sakura had regained her courage. She promised herself she would never be this scared of him again. He could do whatever he wanted, she had a mission and he couldn't stop her from saving Naruto. She missed Naruto. He was always there, telling her it would be okay, and that he would save her. But now she had to find courage to go save him, and tell him that everything was going to be okay. She had to be the one to never give up. This was one of the things she had learned from Naruto, never give up, and always try your best. Always put your friends first. She missed his cheerful face. She missed how he could lift mood in any situation. He had never given up on her, so now she wouldn't give up on him. She had to do everything she could to save him.

She sighed. How should she be able to do her best to save him when she was here, captured. In a room were escaping wasn't an option. She had tried to escape, without any luck. She knew he was keeping an eye on her. She had to figure something out. She couldn't stand the thought of Naruto getting killed.

All of a sudden she could hear voices and chairs being moved, then a "bump". The noises seemed to come from above her. She got up and tried to hear what was going on up there. One of the voices were very loud and sounded mad or maybe scared, she couldn't tell. Another voice tried to calm the other down. She wasn't sure how many people were there, but she could only hear those two. She got curious as to what was going on up there.

Minutes later she heard footsteps outside her door, and in came Kisame. She couldn't read his face, but it was definitely not a happy face. He looked at her a second. She looked back and gave him the what-do-you-want look.

"You better come with me." He then said.

She just looked at him curiously. Did this have anything to do with what was going on upstairs?

"What if I don't want to?" She asked, with a small smirk on her lips.

"Just come already." He rolled his eyes.

He grabbed her wrist and dragged her with him. They went left, then two times right, left again to they came to a staircase. Sakura tried to remember where they went this might come in handy later. They went up and turned left two times and then went in the second door to the right.

The room was big and there were some painting on the walls. The room was a mess, chairs and tables where as thrown in. There weren't any windows in this room either and only a few lights so it was rather hard to see.

"I brought the kunoichi." Kisame then announced. "I thought she might be of some use."

There was silence a little while. Then she heard footsteps, and saw someone coming towards them. It was Deidara. He looked like he hadn't slept for a while, and his hair was a mess.

"Perfect, come!" He took her hand and dragged her to what looked like a semicircle of chairs.

In the middle of that semicircle there was what looked like a little pile of dirty clothes. Then she looked up at Deidara, what was she supposed to do? Wash the dirty clothes, just because she was a woman didn't it mean she was any good a washing at all. He looked back at her and pointed at the pile of dirty clothes.

"You have to help him!" He said, almost sounded like he begged her.

She didn't get what he meant and looked at the pile of dirty clothes again.

"Look closer Sakura." Another voice said. She froze when she heard Itachi speak. Deidara shook her shoulders, and she came back, remembered her promise to herself, she wouldn't let Itachi scare her again.

She looked closer at the pile of dirty clothes. To her surprise she saw something orange. A mask?

"Oh no!" she whispered, and hurried towards what wasn't just a pile of clothes but a living body, a very hurt body. Tobi's body.

She kneeled down at his side and started to pull his shirt off to see the damages. He had a big wound in the middle of his stomach and several less serious wounds all around his chest. She bent down and put her ear on his chest. She could hear his heart beating, but not as fast as it should be beating. She also heard his breathing, which was rattling. _'I need to take of his mask so he can have access to more air.' _She thought. When she lifted the mask Tobi grabbed her wrist.

"Please… Don't…" He coughed.

"Shh… It's not good for you to speak now." She whispered.

But he wouldn't let go of her wrist. Then she let go of his mask, and his hand slowly fell to his side again. She was a medic she knew, it would be best to remove the mask, but she also respected Tobi's wish. She hadn't known Tobi for long but somehow he had reminded her of Naruto. He was cheerful even when other people wouldn't be, he thought of her as a friend, even if they where enemies.

Even if she hadn't known him for long she thought of him as a friend too, or at least as the closest she would get to a friendly person within the Akatsuki, he had been nice to her. He had a good heart, she could feel it. He never wanted her anything bad.

She wanted to help him. She wanted to return a favor. He had given her food and untied her that night. She hadn't forgotten about it.

She looked up. "I need some water. I have to clean these wounds first."

They were all still, as if they hadn't heard her. "Please?" She then said. Deidara turned around and left the room. So did Itachi, but she doubt he left to be any helpful. Kisame went closer and looked down at Tobi. He grinned and said "I told him, he shouldn't go pet the wolves."

Deidara came back with a bucket of water and placed it right next to Sakura. She immediately started washing the wounds. Tobi coughed.

"What happened?" she asked silently, while working on getting the sand out of the big wound.

"I… I don't know… They were just there all of a sudden… They went for him first… I had my hands full! It's not my fault they came out of the blue." He whispered.

"Who?" Kisame asked.

"The sand ninja's, they knew we were coming, yeah." He said loudly, angrily. "It's not like that had a chance with me, of course. But just all of a sudden they had Tobi cornered, yeah… I told him to be more careful!" He's breathing became more rapid.

'_He really did care after all.'_ She thought.

She was done cleaning the wounds and started focusing her chakra to her hands. This would was very deep, and difficult to heal, but she had been taught by the best there is. '_I should be able to heal this_.' She thought.

She worked for what seemed like hours. Kisame had gone a while ago, there were only her, Tobi and Deidara left, and he wasn't the best help, he just paced back and forth, while she was doing her best to save Tobi. He seemed to cough a lot. She didn't think much of it in the beginning, but when he didn't stop she had a suspicion that he might have gotten blood in his lungs and that would mean there was an internal wound somewhere. She had to close that one, internal wounds were the hardest to heal since you could never be too sure of where the wound was. She could only hope to find the right spot.

When the worst was healed she started looking for the internal wound. She healed the best she could. When she was done she asked Deidara to carefully put him in a bed close to her room so she could keep an eye on Tobi's condition. At this moment she couldn't tell if he was going to be okay or not.

She wasn't sure about Deidara, he seemed like he was genuinely worried about Tobi. She followed them to the room where Tobi was going to stay. She looked at Deidara putting him down on the bed. Deidara watched him a little while. Then Sakura put a hand on his arm.

"Are you okay?" she asked.

"I'm fine, yeah." He said and stepped away from her arm, "It's not like I care about him anyways." He crossed his arms and looked away. "I just don't want to put up with getting a new partner all the time that's it, yeah."

Sakura didn't believe that, she smiled inside. _'Sure you don't.' _she thought. But didn't say anything. She knew it was hard seeing a friend almost die in front of one. She had been working at the hospital, and she had seen many ninjas coming in with their friends half dead. She could see the sorrow in their eyes. It was even hard on her too. The hardest part was when they didn't survive. She always cried when she came home from work when she had lost a patient.

He turned and looked at her. "You should get some sleep you look very tired, yeah." He did have a point she had spend a lot of chakra on healing Tobi, and now he said it she did feel kind of dizzy. She took her had to her head.

"You're probably right, I should…" she grabbed a pillar that just so happened to be placed right next to her, she all of a sudden felt very tired, like her legs wouldn't carry her anymore, and grabbed the pillar with the other hand too. Then the pillar did something very weird, it lifted her up and carried her in to her own room. She didn't understand, pillars don't move around.

"What a weird pillar…" She whispered and frowned already a sleep.

Deidara looked down at the pink kunoichi in the bed, he smiled a little. She sure was the weird one, he didn't understand how she could heal someone she hadn't known for long that was supposed to be her enemy. Why would someone heal an enemy? He just couldn't understand that. But deep down he was grateful that she had.

"Thank you" He whispered and took one last look back at her, before he went out of the room to get some sleep himself.

* * *

**A****/N**: Not one of the longest chapters but i hope you liked it.


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